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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Sharing health records
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One component of plans to institute a national electronic medical records system is the ability to share health information among providers and researchers.
What would motivate consumers to open their health records?
Money, of course.
Forrester Research is out with a new study that says 47 percent of consumers would allow their medical records to be shared among providers and researchers if it meant lower insurance premiums for them.
The study doesn’t seem to differentiate between sharing identifiable data among health care providers and sharing anonymous data with health researchers, as many plans call for. Regardless, less than half of those willing to share their records say they believe current health privacy laws are sufficient to protect personal information.
What do you think? Would you be willing to let researchers use your health records to look for public health trends or conduct studies if it saved you money on health insurance?
