Now the misguided privacy law is putting US researchers at a disadvantage. Way to go HIPAA!
Nearly 70 percent of clinical scientists in a national survey said U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA, enacted in 2003, has made research more difficult, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Almost 40 percent of those surveyed said HIPAA has added to the cost of research and half said it has slowed the pace of research.
“HIPAA is adversely affecting our ability to conduct biomedical research,” Dr. Roberta Ness of the University of Pittsburgh said in a statement.
Related posts:
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- James Kim and privacy rules: Can HIPAA also lead to needless deaths?
- Patient blogs: A HIPAA nightmare?
- Andrew Speaker: Were HIPAA laws broken?
- HIPAA overcompliance
- Cho Sueng-Hui and HIPAA
- HIPAA as a means to profit?
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{ 3 comments }
HIPAA is an endless nightmare to patients and their caregivers. Yet Homeland Security and other federal & even some private agencies quietly have full access to all data.
HIPAA is the sickest of sick jokes. A bureaucratic nightmare that is a sham for real privacy.
Ed Sodaro MD
HIPAA has the same problem all such laws have, that the language is sufficiently vague to allow attorneys infinite opportunity to debate what it means.
Case and point: HIPAA’s promise that patients “will not be penalized for filing a complaint.” Care to define what constitutes a “penalty”? Not unlike the political debate over what “torture” means. From personal experience, I know that one can have his/her access to a doctor group blocked for making a complaint, and it’s all perfectly fine. “We do not consider termination a penalty,” the risk management attorney squealed.
I would agree with Dr. Sodaro. The only thing HIPAA does is give lawyers on all sides another turn at the trough. Better to not even have the illusion of privacy rights and at least enjoy the positives of unfettered research.
I noticed that no one mentioned that important epidemiological studies are being done in the United States at the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente http://www.dor.kaiser.org/studies/rpgeh/index.html . Research done by the DOR are far superior that those of Sweden and South Korea, because unlike these two countries which each comprise of a very homogeneous society, it uses a database which reflects the diverse melting pot of America.
The DOR is undertaking an ambitious project that will enroll 500,000 adults to determine the relationship of genes, environment, and health.
Innovation is occurring in transforming healthcare in the United States even within the HIPAA regulatory environment. The question is will it be fast enough and will it be broad enough?
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