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Strengthening privacy and accountability in the health care system

Ontario is improving privacy and accountability in the health care system with new measures to protect the personal health information of patients. Click here for the official announcement.

The province intends to introduce amendments to the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) that, if passed, would strengthen privacy rules, make it easier to prosecute offences and increase fines.

Bill 78, Electronic Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2013 will be reintroduced. It permits the establishment of electronic health records by non-custodians. Health information custodians will be given access to the electronic data bank in appropriate circumstances. The Bill involves a major revision to the Personal Health Information Protection Act. In addition, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA) is amended to permit the Minister to make regulations requiring a regulated health professional College to collect from its members information specified in the regulations that is necessary for ensuring effective electronic health records and requiring the College to disclose such information to a prescribed organization. A member of the College would be required to comply with the college’s request for information.

The most significant privacy enhancements announced below read as follows:

• increasing accountability and transparency by making it mandatory to report privacy breaches to the Information and Privacy Commissioner and, in certain cases, to relevant regulatory Colleges

• strengthening the process to prosecute offences under PHIPA by removing the requirement that prosecutions must be commenced within six months of the alleged privacy breach

• further discouraging "snooping" into patient records by doubling the fines for offences under PHIPA from $50,000 to $100,000 for individuals and from $250,000 to $500,000 for the organization

• clarifying the authority under which health care providers may collect, use and disclose personal health information in electronic health records.

The earliest this Bill could be introduced is late September 2015. Further information about this legislation will be available at that time.

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