One of the greatest concerns of electronic health records use is privacy. Some experts have worried that the technology will open providers up to security breaches. However, a new report says that meaningful use requirements could be used to highlight how secure medical data actually is, putting many of these fears to rest.
The Health IT Policy Committee, a group that advises the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, recently told providers that they should describe the security steps that they have taken when completing the security risk assessment portion of the second stage of meaningful use, according to Government Health IT.
The group said that this would highlight how safe medical data and electronic health records actually are, eliminating much of the fear of data breaches that surround the technology. There are already many requirements of meaningful use that deal with security, and these just need to be emphasized.
"We're proposing to use meaningful use criteria to shine a spotlight on encryption of data at rest. We're not suggesting that documentation be presented but an attestation that this has been done," Deven McGraw, chair of the group that made the recommendations.
While some information about what the second stage of meaningful use has surfaced, officials are still working to determine exactly what the requirements will look like.