The Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC) is a federal initiative to study privacy and security "challenges" for the implementation of health information exchange (HIE) in the states. Illinois was one of 33 states and one territory participating in the collaboration.

Goals of phase 1 of the initiative were to:

• identify both best practices and challenges;
  
  
• develop consensus-based solutions that protect the privacy and security of health information, and
  
  
• develop plans to implement solutions.

Phase 2 involved the implementation of plans developed during the first phase.

Illinois' HISPC project completed the initial phase when the "Final State Implementation Plan" was submitted on April 15, 2007.

The priority for Illinois as HISPC entered phase 2 was to work with governmental and private sector stakeholders - a public-private partnership - to move forward on privacy and security issues that need to be addressed by the governance structure of a state-level HIE. The HISPC-Illinois project established two work groups, each focusing on distinct privacy and security-related products.

A Privacy and Security Work Group developed privacy and security policies and recommendations for consideration by the governance structure of a state-level HIE.

A Legal Work Group prepared model forms that can be used by health care providers informing patients or obtaining consent in special circumstances that their health information will be shared with an HIE.

These products can be viewed by clicking here.

For 2008, HISPC-Illinois has joined California, Ohio and North Carolina as part of the Consent 2 - Policy Options Collaborative. The purpose of the collaborative is to explore the viability of statutory options that states could enact to resolve barriers to the exchange of personal health information among states that have conflicting state laws and requirements governing consent.

Some members of the collaborative will also determine how each option may affect the development of a uniform national approach to obtaining patient consent to release information, or clarify which states’ laws control when personal health information disclosures are requested between states with conflicting laws.

Stakeholder groups within each state participating in the collaborative will review four specific statutory approaches: (1) uniform state law; (2) model state law; (3) choice of law provision; and, (4) interstate compact.

Click here to view the collaborative's report that was submitted on March 31, 2009 .

Steering Committee

Privacy & Security Work Group

Legal Work Group

Resources

HISPC-Illinois Reports

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