PRISM - A Privacy Toolkit for Public Health Professionals

SESSION: Addressing Privacy and Security in Public Health Information Exchanges: Best Practices from States.

Presentation Title: PRISM - A Privacy Toolkit for Public Health Professionals.

The plethora of Federal and state laws affecting health data impose uneven, sometimes conflicting, and often misunderstood privacy requirements on uses and disclosures to and from public sector health programs. PRISM, a privacy tool developed by the Public Health Data Standards Consortium, is a web-based tool to provide state and local government health programs with a simple way to help sort through and understand the basic legal privacy requirements for use and disclosure. PRISM is a reference tool that provides guidance and resources to assist public health departments to comply with all state and federal privacy requirements when using or disclosing identifiable health information.  
PRISM is organized by the three common roles/functions of state and local government health entities: public health authority, health care provider, and health plan/payer. Each role/function has a series of easy-to-navigate tables that outline a variety of use and disclosure purposes and the general legal requirements relevant to each for that role. The tables identify and define the baseline conditions and requirements for using/disclosing specific types of health information, using HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, as a foundation. The tables also incorporate other federal and state privacy laws and related requirements