Confidentiality will have a large cost to industry
Confidentiality will have a large cost to industry
Confidentiality legislation that would require providers to track all disclosures of health record information could cost health care providers a total of $40 billion over five years, according to a House subcommittee estimate.
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that patient confidentiality regulations will impose a cost of $3.8 billion on the health care industry. But House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) cited estimates at a hearing before his subcommittee in February that place final costs of the proposed legislation to be 10 times greater than the $3.8 billion price tag originally given.
Industry experts say retraining employees, hiring privacy officials, upgrading systems, and tracking disclosures represents a massive reorganization among providers. "At first blush, this standard seems to a perfectly reasonable common-sense provision," says Alissa Fox, executive director of the National Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, of the provision that calls for providers disclose only minimum information. "This standard would require a massive reorganization of workflow, as well as a possible redesign of physical office space, and would jeopardize the timeliness of patient care, benefit determinations, and other critical elements of the health care system."
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