Physician medical records and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires physicians to place greater responsibility on protecting electronic transfer of medical records to patients and other medical providers, while allowing them greater access to their owned medical records. The required protections on use of electronic medical records will be very costly to the physician's office practice. This paper highlights the HIPAA requirements to protect medical records and assure access to consumers. The new HIPAA provisions will require physicians and managed care plans to develop new safeguards and management procedures to enhance the protection of electronic medical information and data base systems.