Health Information Privacy Legislation the Relevance of

¶ … Health Information Privacy Legislation The relevance of protecting the personal health information of the residents of Prince Edward Island (PEI) cannot be overstated. Towards that end, I propose that you introduce legislation that would protect as well as limit access to the individually identifiable health information of residents of the province. Such legislation should ideally address who can have access to or receive a consumer's health information.

As you may already know, in Canada, the privacy of consumers "is protected at the federal level by the Privacy Act…and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)" (Kristoffersson, Schmidtke and Cassiman, 2010). Prince Edward Island (PEI) unlike other provinces in Canada has no health privacy legislation in place.

In basic terms, patient privacy according to Kirch (2008) "is the right and desire of a person to control the disclosure of personal health information." With no health information privacy legislation in place, some employers would seek to utilize the personal medical information of employees for decision making purposes.

In the words of Plasencia (1999), concerns "…that disclosure of sensitive medical information could result in loss of employment and insurance relate to the growing importance attached to privacy and confidentiality." Further, it is also important to note that some employers could be tempted to use job applicants' health information in the job selection process.

For example, an employer who has unrestricted access to the personal health information of a job applicant could find that the said applicant has hypertension and consequently use such information to deny the concerned individual the job on the grounds that he (the applicant) can't handle stress. In that regard, PEI needs to have health information privacy legislation in place so as to protect employees from unfair discrimination based on their perceived inability to perform as a result of a medical condition.

Secondly, by introducing the health information privacy legislation, you will essentially be responding to the wishes of health care consumers. Indeed, in the opinion of Kirch (2008), consumers today are increasingly becoming convinced that their health information should be accorded some level of privacy.

As the author further points out, "there is increasing public concern over the potential for release of personal data, especially regarding computer-based systems." With that in mind, there is a need to reassure residents of the province about the safety of their health information/data by having in place the relevant legislation. Next, as Gostin (2008) points out, in addition to economic harm, breach of privacy can also occasion psychological and even social harm.

In that regard, there exists a need to protect the interests of those whose careers and/or reputations would be irreversibly damaged were their health information to be leaked to the public. Individuals in this category include but they are not limited to entertainers, politicians, sports personalities, etc. (Kirch, 2008). Some of the sensitive information whose release to the media or otherwise would be devastating to some of those mentioned above includes information having to do with STDs, HIV status, abortion, drug abuse, etc. (Kirch, 2008).

In the words of Gostin (2008), "disclosure of some conditions…can be stigmatizing and may cause embarrassment, social isolation, and loss of self-esteem." In that regard, the province should have the necessary health information privacy in place in an attempt to protect the well-being of the general public as well as that of those to whom such disclosure would cause the greatest harm. It is also important to note that in this age of electronic health records (EHRs), threats of unauthorized network intrusion have significantly increased.

In basic terms, an EHR according to Shortliffe and Cimino (2006) "is a repository of electronically maintained information about an individual's lifetime health status and health care…" Although it remains highly relevant in the enhancement of efficiency when it comes to the delivery of care, there are those who are concerned that digitized private medical information could easily be accessed from servers by criminal elements. As Jones and Groom (2011) point out, the privacy risk in the case of EHRs is pretty much clear.

In the words of the authors, "more electronic health records create the possibility of more personal medical information being breeched…" (Jones and Groom, 2011). With that in mind, the relevant laws must be enacted to keep up with advances in technology. In my opinion, it is important to note that while offering appropriate protection for consumers' personal health information is critical, the said legislation should not be too rigid as this would hinder disclosure of the appropriate information needed for patient care.

Those who should be required to protect individually identifiable information of consumers under the legislation could include health care providers, health insurance companies, etc. Information to be protected in this case would ordinarily include consumers' billing information, health insurance records, medical.