The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has organized a workgroup under the HIT Policy Committee to address a range of privacy and security issues. Dubbed the Privacy and Security “Tiger Team,” the group is comprised of members from the HIT Policy Committee as well as the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and will work over the next few months to address the requirements of HITECH and the needs of organizations created under that law.
The team, co-chaired by Deven McGraw of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Paul Egerman, held a public meeting June 10th to discuss health information services providers (HISPs), such as regional networks, and whether employees should be allowed to look at records transferred from one healthcare provider to another.
Other issues discussed included how patients could be informed if computers or employees of HISPs were allowed to review patient records, and how long a HISP could keep the record in its possession.
ONC has stated that they expect the team’s work to be completed by late fall.
