Re: Are Google/MSFT bound by HIPAA?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Dana Blankenhorn [dana () a-clue com]
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 7:05 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  Are Google/MSFT bound by HIPAA?


I covered the HIMSS show, where hospitals go for their IT, this week at
healthcare.zdnet.com and here is what I was told.

When you download the Electronic Medical Record you own to Google or
Microsoft, you create a Personal Health Record (PHR) which belongs to you.

Google says all connections with your PHR at Google are https://
sessions, not http:// They insist they will not sell your data, and they
will not advertise on Google Health. They also say they will not
download the data. If you want to get your data from, say, the Cleveland
Clinic, you find the Clinic's name on a Google Health pull-down menu and
are then sent to the Clinic's Web site, where you complete a form asking
them to download the data to your Google site.

Microsoft HealthVault is not just a PHR, by the way. It's also a way for
companies to link their stuff together, specifically so you can have
your PHR where you want it -- including Google. It's seen as the
software glue creating interoperability among health care applications
-- right now they don't have it.

I'm not going to vouch for the truth in any of this, but this is what
the companies told me at HIMSS. The PHR belongs to you, not to the ISP
or Web host where it resides. It is up to you whether you want to share
any or all data in your PHR with anyone. You can exclude anything you
want from the sharing. Once your data reaches another doctor, or
hospital, or any other entity covered by HIPAA rules, that data, in that
location, becomes subject to HIPAA. But you are not a covered entity.
You are not subject to HIPAA rules. You can tell me about your bad
kidney, your blood sugar, or your bouts with depression, and that's
perfectly legitimate.

Hope this helps.


--
Dana Blankenhorn                http://www.danablankenhorn.com
Voic.Us                 http://www.voic.us
ZDNet Open Source               http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source
ZDNet HealthCare                http://healthcare.zdnet.com
Phone Number            404-373-7634



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