This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Survey: Few patients see value in privacy laws
WASHINGTON — Only 17% of patients believe the federal medical privacy laws are of value, according to results of a small survey.
Ralph Falkenstein, MD, presented findings of the survey here at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. He said 83 patients were given a survey when they checked in at an ophthalmologist’s office. They were questioned about what forms they filled out, what the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is and what the HIPAA laws do.
“Only 49.4% knew that HIPAA was about a privacy issue,” Dr. Falkenstein said.
Dr. Falkenstein also found that 85.4% of those surveyed did not read the information they were given about HIPAA. He said 64% of the respondents said they “look at HIPAA as just another form to sign.”
He said that these findings are consistent with other published surveys on patients’ attitudes toward HIPAA.