Electronic Health Records Interoperability - Assignment Example

“[A]n effective EHR system must employ open standards and fully support interoperability if the information contained in an electronic record is to be truly usable in our health care environment’s distributed clinical setting” (Gioia, n.d.). In spite of the general consensus about the inherent advantages obtained from the health information technology’s integration, certain legal implications of data sharing of EHRs remain. “A patient’s right to maintain certain health information confidentially poses a significant legal challenge to interoperable EHRs” (Dunlop, 2007).

The main legal challenges include but are not limited to the Stark anti-referral policies, and the regulations of the HIPAA’s privacy and security. HIPAA is the legislation’s broadest component that regulates the security and confidentiality of the data of patient care across a whole range of federal laws that draw upon the health information’s use. Although it does not safeguard the patient’s privacy directly, yet HIPAA imposes limits based on confidentiality upon the information generated to the entities of healthcare.