Mental health providers are demonstrating their opposition to a proposed state rule that would require them to share patient names and information about diagnoses with regulators and other health professionals through the health information exchange.
About 500 providers and patients gathered at noon Saturday outside the Oklahoma Department of Health Services, which will consider adopting a revised rule that would require these disclosures when it meets at 2 p.m. March 22.
From there, the group marched down Lincoln Boulevard to the south steps of the state Capitol, where they gathered to make sure their views were heard.
“Our biggest concern is the privacy of our clients,” said Victoria Whatley, a licensed professional counselor at an Edmond facility. Whatley works with patients who have experienced trauma, suffer from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or other illnesses such as depression or anxiety.
Although the rule states that the privacy of patient records will be protected within the system, Whatley and others who gathered Saturday said even sharing those records on a state health information exchange system would violate patients’ rights under federal law.
Whatley said the rule would violate her own ethics rules. She believes it is wrong to even confirm that a person is her patient unless the patient has specifically signed consent for the information to be disclosed.
“They said there would be a waiver, but even that would force me to confirm that an individual is receiving my services and that would violate my codes of ethics,” she said.
The health authority expects the updated rule to benefit providers and patients
According to the health authority, the proposed rule will benefit all Oklahomans and their health care providers because the information that will be collected and made available through the exchange will allow users to better coordinate patient care and improve the effectiveness of the health care delivery system.
If passed, it would require all health care providers to at least work on connecting to the health information exchange by July 1 so that their data can be shared among all network users.
Authority members will meet to consider adopting the amended rule when they meet in their boardroom at 4345 N Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City.
Opponents only recently learned of the opt-in requirement, one says
Jeff Fine-Thomas, a licensed marriage and family therapist who practices in Edmond with his wife (a licensed psychologist), said Saturday that he only recently learned of the requirements to participate in the health information exchange, even though the exchange itself was created by law , which the legislature approved last year.
“A lot of people who wanted to comment on this weren’t able to,” because they didn’t learn about the proposed modified rule until the public comment period was about to end, Fine-Thomas said.
He said a representative from the health authority met with concerned practitioners on Friday.
“It sounds like they’re trying to understand our concerns, but I don’t know how that’s going to play out.” It’s certainly a complicated issue.”
Fine-Thomas said he worries that a requirement that would force him to disclose the names and diagnoses of his patients in a system that could be accessed by any other health care provider in the state would create “a situation where the informed consent is removed from the patient’s control.”
Whatley echoed his concerns.
“When people go to therapy, they’re letting out the deepest, darkest secrets in their mind, and they don’t want other people to know that. We’re just fighting for people’s privacy,” she said.