Privacy Workshop

On April 14, 2003, the HIPAA* Privacy Rule went into effect. The rule states how health plans, providers and health care clearinghouses ("covered entities") can release protected health information. In order to obtain data from these sources, you must understand the privacy rule and what it means. Since covered entities are not required to release data to researchers, your ability to obtain and use data from these sources could be shut down without a full understanding of the privacy rule.

AcademyHealth and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) held two workshops to educate health services researchers about their responsibilities under the regulation.

This Web site contains:

The workshop addressed crucial questions such as:

  • What meets the legal requirements for personally identifiable health information?
  • Does de-identified information need to be protected?
  • What types of linkages are allowed between data and identifiers?
  • What is the new limited data set researchers will have access to and how can it be accessed?
  • How can researchers use data while protecting the public?
  • What are the consequences for failing to protect this information?
  • What entities are covered by the regulation and how is their identifiable data acquired?

Faculty presentations from the workshops:

*Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

AcademyHealth

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