American Telemedicine Association Publishes New Health Data Privacy Principles

Amid rising concerns about data privacy within the telehealth arena, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) released a set of principles to ensure patient data is protected during telehealth utilization.  

The ATA’s Health Data Privacy Principles include six components:

1. Consistency
2. The definition of consumer health data
3. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
4. Consumer rights
5. Consumer consent
6. Sale of data and opt-out; and
7. Enforcement.

The ATA states that a federal policy would offer much-needed consistency in data privacy practices for telehealth providers nationwide. But in lieu of such a policy, there need to be efforts to establish uniformity with existing federal and state privacy laws and standards to reduce compliance challenges and confusion.