Health Information Exchanges
HIE stands for Health Information Exchange. An HIE allows medical records to be shared electronically. HIE relies on using networking technologies to enable your doctor to share records with another health care provider over the Internet, instead of by fax. As a result, doctors participating in an HIE may have a much more complete picture of your medical history to work from, even if they have only had limited or even in some cases, no previous contact with you as a patient.
WPF has done a lot of work on HIE privacy. Our work is linked below and included in the blog posts.
World Privacy Forum’s HIE Tips, Glossary, and FAQ for Patients:
This FAQ, glossary, and tipsheet about Health Information Exchanges is designed to work in tandem with our HIE map and directory of California HIEs, available here. If you have questions about HIPAA beyond those answered here, please see our extensive resource, A Patient’s Guide to HIPAA.
WPF’s Interactive Map of HIE’s in California:
This map identifies Health Information Exchanges in California. HIEs are an increasingly popular way for hospitals, pharmacies, labs, and emergency room physicians to share patient information. Some HIEs just share information within one hospital network, some share information across many hospitals or physicians in a region, and some HIEs share information across the state. If your health information is being shared through an HIE, your lab test results, medications, medical history, or other clinical information related to your health care may be included in the sharing. It’s important for you to know when your records are being shared, where, and what controls you have over that.
More HIE information are in the blog posts below.
HIE stands for “Health Information Exchange.” We encourage all patients to request a copy of their medical records to check for errors, whether in paper or digital format. Begin any process of HIE discovery with your health care provider. It will likely be your health care providers who are able to let you know if your records have been exchanged, and if so, where.
Medical identity theft happens when another person uses your identity to acquire medical goods or services. The problem is that when this occurs, the imposter’s medical treatment gets put into your medical files. If your imposter has a different medical condition than you do, then your medical file can contain errors. It is important to correct errors in your medical file that occur as a result of medical identity theft. One of the potential challenges with exchanging your medical records in a health information exchange is that if medical identity theft happens, the erroneous file can be spread far afield through the HIE. Here’s how to begin approaching the challenges.
HIE stands for “Health Information Exchange.” We encourage all patients to request a copy of their medical records and check for errors, whether on paper or digital. If you have received a copy of your medical record from your doctor and you find mistakes or errors, it is a good idea to correct those files as soon as possible with that health care provider. It’s also important to see if incorrect information has been circulated into a Health Information Exchange, and get it corrected there as well. See more ….
This video is part 3 of a 14-part WPF video series on health privacy and health information exchanges. Many patients may be surprised to learn that a health care provider does not need your permission to share your medical information for treatment purposes within an HIE, just as a doctor does not need permission to send your records via fax to another doctor for treatment purposes. This is true even if your health record is going to a doctor you have never met before. See more ….
This video is part 2 of a 14-part WPF video series on health privacy and health information exchanges. Doctors have been using fax machines to send and exchange patient records for years. We know that an HIE allows medical records to be shared electronically between health care providers. But how does an HIE differ — really — from faxes? What changes, beyond the obvious?
