Privacy and Quality in Health Care

This article presents current activity in the privacy of personal health information (PHI) and the quality of health care, discusses the connections between them, and examines the effects of this activity on certain groups. In recent years, as more insurers, providers, and purchasers have adopted electronic systems to store, process, and transmit information, awareness has grown about the importance of developing efficient and compatible systems that readily permit electronic transfer of medical information. At the same time, this increasing ability to easily transmit and share medical information is raising public policy concerns about inappropriate uses of personal health information (PHI), and how to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients' PHI. Many groups, including patients, providers, insurers, employers, and researchers, are concerned about real or perceived conflicts between privacy of individuals' personal health information and efforts to improve health care quality. It is useful to examine both privacy of PHI and quality of health care, since they are interrelated, and actions taken in one area often will affect the other