Despite recent policy push to increase patients' access to their health records, more than half of providers are out of compliance with the HIPAA right of access, according to a recent Ciitizen report.
For its report, Ciitizen, a data-sharing startup focused on increasing patients' access to medical records, analyzed 51 healthcare providers' responses to patient record requests against the HIPAA right of access requirements. The company also examined telephone survey responses of 3,003 healthcare institutions regarding release of patient records.
Three report insights:
1. More than 50 percent of providers are out of compliance with the HIPAA right of access, and the highest number of failures made by providers was refusing to send patients their records by email.
2. Twenty-four percent of healthcare institutions are potentially noncompliant with HIPAA fee limitations, according to the telephone responses survey.
3. Seventy-one percent of providers supplied requested patient records in compliance with HIPAA after the organizations' supervisors and privacy officials were educated on HIPAA regulations.