The University of Houston Health Law & Policy Institute, under contract with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, recently prepared a primer on medical information privacy. The primer outlines pertinent federal and Texas laws and regulations that provide privacy protections of medical information. The primer notes the challenge is to reconcile and harmonize all overlaps, gaps and preemption provisions so that healthcare providers are enabled to obtain all necessary health information to effectively and appropriately treat their patients while ensuring that patients’ medical records privacy rights are adequately protected.
An electronic copy of the primer is available at: http://www.thsa.org/media/1812/primer_medical_information_privacy_protections_texas_3-15-2011.pdf.