Consumers Fear Theft Of Personal Health Information

Probably fueled by constant news about breaches – duh! – consumers continue to worry that their personal health information isn’t safe, according to a new survey.

As the press release for the 2017 Xerox eHealth Survey notes, last year more than one data breach was reported each day. So it’s little wonder that the survey – which was conducted online by Harris poll in January 2017 among more than 3,000 U.S. adults – found that 44% of Americans are worried about having their PHI stolen.

According to the survey, 76% of respondents believe that it’s more secure to share PHI between providers through a secure electronic channel than to fax paper documents. This belief is certainly a plus for providers. After all, they’re already committed to sharing information as effectively as possible, and it doesn’t hurt to have consumers behind them.

Another positive finding from the study is that Americans also believe better information sharing across providers can help improve patient care. Xerox/Harris found that 87% of respondents believe that wait times to get test results and diagnoses would drop if providers securely shared and accessed patient information from varied providers. Not only that, 87% of consumers also said that they felt that quality of service would improve if information sharing and coordination among different providers was more common.

Looked at one way, these stats offer providers an opportunity. If you’re already spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on interoperability, it doesn’t hurt to let consumers know that you’re doing it. For example, hospitals and medical practices can put signs in their lobby spelling out what they’re doing by way of sharing data and coordinating care, have their doctors discuss what information they’re sharing and hand out sheets telling consumers how they can leverage interoperable data. (Some organizations have already taken some of these steps, but I’d argue that virtually any of them could do more.)

On the other hand, if nearly half of consumers afraid that their PHI is insecure, providers have to do more to reassure them. Though few would understand how your security program works, letting them know how seriously you take the matter is a step forward. Also, it’s good to educate them on what they can do to keep their health information secure, as people tend to be less fearful when they focus on what they can control.

That being said, the truth is that healthcare data security is a mixed bag. According to a study conducted last year by HIMSS, most organizations conduct IT security risk assessments, many IT execs have only occasional interactions with top-level leaders. Also, many are still planning out their medical device security strategy. Worse, provider security spending is often minimal. HIMSS notes that few organizations spend more than 6% of their IT budgets on data security, and 72% have five or fewer employees allocated to security.

Ultimately, it’s great to see that consumers are getting behind the idea of health data interoperability, and see how it will benefit them. But until health organizations do more to protect PHI, they’re at risk of losing that support overnight.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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