HIPAA, HIPAA, Hooray? Current Challenges and Initiatives in Health Informatics in the United States

A review of the current challenges, trends and initiatives around the various regulations as related to Health Informatics in the United States is presented. A summary of the functions in a workflow-based approach organized into the process and compliance for HIPAA, secure email and fax communications interfaces, e-prescriptions and patient safety and the health information technology savings claims versus costs follows: HIPAA compliance is complex; data interoperability and integration remains difficult. Email and faxing is possible with current over-the-shelf technologies within the purview of the HIPAA Security and Privacy rule. Integration of e-prescribing and NPI data is an area where health informatics can make a real difference. Medical errors remain high. There are no real savings yet from the usage of health information technologies; the costs for implementation remain high, and the business model has not evolved to meet the needs. Health Information Technology (Health IT) projects continue to have a significant failure rate; Open Source technologies are a viable alternative both for cost reduction and scalability. A discussion on the macro view of health informatics is also presented within the context of healthcare models and a comparison of the U.S. system against other countries.