Study: Stronger privacy rules slow EMR adoption

In a conclusion that isn't likely to please health privacy wonks, a group of researchers have published a paper suggesting that tighter health privacy rules could significantly slow the rate of EMR deployment in the U.S.

The study, which was done by researchers at MIT and the University of Virginia, compared rates of EMR adoption in states with strong privacy protections and less-stringent rules. They concluded that in states where protections were tougher, the number of hospitals rolling out EMRs was as much as 30 percent lower than in states where hospitals had it easier.
Hospitals in those states with get-tough privacy rules typically found that the rules made it harder and more costly for hospitals to share information, making it less valuable to invest in an EMR in the first place.

This is bad news for privacy advocates, who are already concerned about the possibility of PHR-related privacy breaches, and fearful that the EMR expansion funded by the stimulus bill won't protect privacy enough. However, they can be pretty confident that the debate over where to draw privacy lines with EMRs isn't over yet.

To learn more about the research study:
- read this Computerworld piece

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