Report: Personal Health Records – Why Many PHRs Threaten Privacy

Under HIPAA, if a consumer wants to authorize a covered entity to disclose her records, she will usually be obliged to sign an authorization form. The HIPAA rule prescribes the content of the authorization form and its scope. That rule provides some protections because it makes it harder for a consumer to unknowingly sign a form authorizing the disclosure of health records. For example, if a consumer signs a one-sentence form authorizing anyone with records about the consumer to disclose the records to the bearer of the form, it is unlikely that any doctor or hospital would or should honor that form.

For a non-HIPAA covered PHR, the privacy policy becomes a key document, if it is available. The privacy policy of a PHR vendor may tell consumers how the vendor plans to use personal information. It is possible that a commercial or advertising-supported PHR will do a good job of protecting its clients from uninformed or casual disclosures of personal or health information. It is also possible that a cautious client will not be able to evaluate a PHR vendor’s policy or practice.

PHRs that operate outside of HIPAA can negatively affect the privacy interests of consumers in various ways. The best to hope for is that a PHR will not make privacy significantly worse. However, it is not likely that even that weak standard can be met. The existence of electronically available and centralized health information outside the traditional health care system will attract new users and create new risks. The mere adding of health records to a PHR vendor’s files may undermine existing privacy protections of old records. Security is a concern for any electronic records. A consumer’s ability to control the disclosure of PHR records can easily be compromised. The consumer’s ability to correct errors in PHR records may be problematic. Advertising support may not meet a PHR’s profit goals unless at least some consumer information is available for close targeting of ads. Promised PHR privacy protections may vanish overnight if the privacy policy is changed.