HHS: HIPAA limited in age of mHealth, social media and wearables

Healthcare IT News: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report to Congress wherein it stated that HIPAA serves traditional healthcare well and continues to support national priorities for interoperable health information with its media-neutral privacy rule, but that the scope of HIPAA is limited.

“The health information marketplace of 2016 is filled with technology that enables individuals to be more engaged in managing their own health outside of the traditional healthcare sphere than ever before,” according to the 32-page report. “The wearable fitness trackers, social media sites where individuals share health information through specific social networks, and other technologies that are common today did not exist when Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.”

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