Business Associates in the National Health Information Network: Implications for Medical Information Privacy

This article examines the role of the business associate of healthcare providers (BAHP) in the National Health Information Network. Current Health Insurance Portability and Accountability legislation has little to say about BAHPs and their potential impact on medical information privacy. For the good of the business enterprise, managers who are BAHPs or who supervise BAHPs need to be aware of the potential pitfalls of ignoring medical information privacy and take a proactive stance in protecting medical information privacy within the National Health Information Network. Among the approaches that managers can adopt include creating legal contracts between a business and BAHPs, proactively adopting more effective transmission security technologies, and insuring that BAHPs properly dispose of medical information after their use. Such proactive approaches will help to insure that the business is protected against a serious data breach that may result in popular and/or legal challenges to the business.