Privacy and Security Solutions for Interoperable Health Information Exchange. Releasing Clinical Laboratory Test Results: Report on Survey of State Laws

摘要

This report is one of a series produced under RTI International's contract with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The contract, entitled Privacy and Security Solutions for Interoperable Health Information Exchange, is managed by AHRQ and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). In the first phase of this project, 33 states and 1 territory (collectively referred to as state teams) conducted an assessment of variation in business practices, policies, and laws that might be perceived as barriers to electronic health information exchange, suggested possible solutions to these barriers, and prepared plans to implement these solutions. In doing so, states identified the federal Clinical Laboratories Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and related state laws as potential barriers to laboratories' exchange of health care information directly with the patient, with health information organizations (HIOs), or with other similar organizations who may participate in electronic health information exchange. In very general terms, CLIA permits clinical laboratories to release test results only to an individual authorized under state law to order or receive test results and, if applicable, the individual responsible for using the test results and the laboratory that initially requested the test. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule does not interfere with this regulatory framework.