HEALTH IT: California Cracks Down on Health Cyber-Snoops

What do Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett have in common with California First Lady Maria Shriver? How soon we forget: someone snooped in their medical files. The California state Senate hasn't forgotten. It just passed legislation that would require health care providers to monitor employees to ensure that they do not violate patients' medical rights, the LA Times reports. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger—Shriver's husband—supports the bill, which still must pass the state Assembly.

Much of the language in the California bill sounds like the federal HIPAA Privacy law. It would require health care providers to have clear and appropriate safeguards to protect patient privacy and "reasonably safeguard confidential medical information from unauthorized or unlawful access, use or disclosure."

But the California initiative differs from HIPAA in several ways. First, it  would allow an individual to sue the person who negligently released confidential medical information. The federal law, in contrast, only allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate complaints and assess penalties. California would also impose fines up to $25,000—but this pales in comparison to the possible monetary damages available in a civil lawsuit.

Second, the California bill would establish a new Office of Health Information Integrity in the state health department to enforce confidentiality laws and assess fines. This is a clear signal that the California legislature is not interested in waiting for the federal government to investigate whether hospitals are properly protecting health information.

A pending companion bil in the state Senate would allow for fines against health care providers themselves, although opponents say such violations are already investigated by the Medical Board of California. Still, these bills are more evidence that the privacy of health information isn't just a concern for movie stars and first ladies.  Protecting privacy is a hot button issue that will be a factor as we move to expand health IT, as we must, as part of health care reform.  It will be interesting to see whether other states follow California's lead.