Principles

The Coalition for Patient Privacy, led by Patient Privacy Rights, developed the following privacy principles to serve as standards for legislation in Congress. Without these ironclad privacy protections, consumers will not trust or participate in any electronic health system.

  • ACCOUNTABILITY – Hold every entity with access to health information accountable.
  • CONTROL – Ensure individuals control the use of their personal health information.
  • TRANSPARENCY – Protect consumers from abusive practices.

View the full letter including in depth descriptions of these principles here.

More Patient Privacy Principles

The following Patient Privacy Principles should be included in all Health IT legislation:

  • Recognize that patients own their health data
  • Give patients control over who can access their electronic health records
  • Give patients the right to opt-in and opt-out of electronic systems
  • Give patients the right to segment sensitive information
  • Require audit trails of every disclosure of patient information
  • Require that patients be notified of suspected or actual privacy breaches
  • Provide meaningful penalties and enforcement for privacy violations
  • Require that health information disclosed for one purpose may not be used for another purpose without informed consent
  • Insure that consumers can not be compelled to share electronic health records to obtain employment, insurance, credit, or admission to schools
  • Deny employers access to employees’ medical records
  • Preserve stronger privacy protections in state laws

View our 2007 Privacy Principles here.