Security News > 2020 > January > Privacy Advocate Tackles Issue of Patient Consent Rights
As health data privacy concerns heat up to a boiling point on multiple fronts, it's more essential than ever that patients get a clear opportunity to make a choice about whether their data is shared, says privacy advocate Twila Brase, who heads the Citizens' Council for Health Freedom.
Federal regulators - to carry out a 21st Century Cures Act goal to drive medical innovation and improve patient care - are proposing standards that promote the use of application programming interfaces and consumer health apps to give patients access to their own health data from electronic health records.
Patients' health data privacy is still in jeopardy because individuals have little legal control over how their data is shared and used, Brase contends.
"Putting apps ... under HIPAA does nothing for privacy except deceive the American public that they have privacy because of HIPAA. So, I think we need to go back to the right direction of [requiring] patient consent for the 'regular' sharing of data that's happening right now, and go toward consent for apps and APIs - written, voluntary consent," she says.
Privacy concerns involving de-identified patient health information;.