For Immediate Release
January 14, 2009
Contact:
Gail Woods Waller
202-336-8236 gwaller@naswdc.org
James Finley
202-336-8315
jfinley@naswdc.org
Nation’s Social Workers Urge Congress to Act in Economic Recovery Plan
Washington –The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) urges Congress to include provisions in the economic recovery bill that encourage the development of a national interoperable health information infrastructure (HIT), provided it includes comprehensive statutory protections for the privacy and security of consumer health records. NASW supports privacy and security for personal health records as an essential element of HIT legislation, now being prepared for passage.
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest professional social work organization in the world with nearly 150,000 members. NASW promotes, develops, and protects the provision of effective social work services to diverse client populations, most of whom expect confidentiality to be an important component of clinical services.
NASW supports the development of a national interoperable HIT network because it offers the possibility of improved care for clients and patients. However, such a network also entails a major risk to consumers, where personal records in a standardized system will be vulnerable to intentional or negligent disclosure on a massive scale. The possible loss of privacy and related problems is of grave concern.
NASW asks Congress to take a truly patient-centered approach to health IT by addressing use of a national electronic health information system in the core concept of a health professional’s ethics. Informed consent must be obtained for the disclosure of every individual’s identifiable health information. Continue reading ‘NASW Seeks Privacy Protections for Personal Health Records’
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