Privacy Concerns With Electronic Medical Records Essay -- Online Secur

Prior to the Information Age, medical checkup records were all stored in folders in secure register cabinets at touch ons offices, hospitals, or health departments. The information within the folders was confidential, and shared solely amongst the patient and physician. straight off these files are fragmented across eightfold treatment sites due to the branching out of specialty centers such as urgent care centers, magnetic resonance imaging, outpatient surgical centers, and other diagnostic centers. Todays ability to store medical records electronically has made it possible to easily send these files from one location to another. However, the same technology which can immix the fragmented pieces of a patients medical record has the ability to also create a path for privacy and security breaches. This paper allow examine how electronic medical records are used, how they are secured, how security is enforced, and what the consequences of security breaches are.It is important fo r the purpose of clarity to distinguish the difference between electronic medical records (EMR) and electronic health records (EHR). electronic medical records are an electronic composition of an individuals medical history including such components as procedures, past diseases, diagnosis, medications, doctors names, and allergies. An electronic health record is an electronic means of documenting a patients procedures, diagnosis, billing information, etc. at each care easiness (Badzek & Gross, 1999). A movement that was first initiated under the Bush administration, accepted by the Clinton administration, and now embraced by President Obama is the creation of the individual electronic medical record. In 2009 President Obama included $36 billion in the stimulus package to... ...n%20age/315,000%20patients%27%20information%20disappears%20from%20Emory%20Healthcare%20_%20www.wsbtv.com.htm Dixon, P. MEDICAL IDENTITY THEFT The Information Crime that Can knock down You, March 3, 2006. Wo rld Privacy Forum. Retrieved from http//www.worldprivacyforum.org/pdf/wpf_medicalidtheft2006.pdf on April 24, 2012.Foreman, Judy (26 June 2006). At Risk of Exposure. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 23 , 2012.Gellman, R. Fact Sheet 8a HIPAA Basics Medical Privacy in the Electronic Age. Privacy Clearing House. March, 2012. Retrieved April 19, 2012 from http//www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hipaa.htm.Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, 42 U.S.C. 1320d-9 (2010).Moore, J. Electronic Medical Records Stimulus Package. Dec. 2009, Retrieved from http//www.electronicmedicalrecords.com/emr-stimulus-hitech-act.php on April 19, 2012.