The future of privacy in a unified national health information infrastructure.

Since the early 1990s, the federal government has set its sights on enacting legislation to establish a national infrastructure for the storage and transmission of electronic health records. In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to protect individuals from abuse by health insurance companies and to provide a “floor” of mandatory privacy standards for certain healthcare entities. HIPAA, as well as other federal privacy protections, however, has become antiquated and inadequate. Thus, members of Congress are currently considering an array of bills intended to regulate the use of medical information by the healthcare industry. The federal government’s current approach to increasing efficiency in healthcare, while lowering its cost by creating a national electronic health information infrastructure, will significantly impact personal privacy and the ability to secure such information. It is imperative, therefore, that this legislation include provisions that safeguard personal privacy and protect confidential information from potential third-party abuse.