Shared expectations for protection of identifiable health care information: report of a national consensus process

The Ethical Force Program is a collaborative effort to create performance measures for ethics in health care. This report lays out areas of consensus for performance measurement on protecting the privacy, confidentiality and security of identifiable health information. The program's oversight body appointed a national Expert Advisory Panel on Privacy and Confidentiality in September 1998. This group compiled and reviewed existing norms, including governmental reports and legal standards, professional association policies, private organization statements and policies, accreditation standards, and ethical opinions. A set of specific and assessable expectations for ethical conduct in this domain was then drafted and refined through 7 meetings over 16 months; consensus was achieved on 34 measurable ethical expectations for the protection of privacy and confidentiality in health care. These expectations should apply to any organization with access to personally identifiable health information, including managed care organizations, physician groups, hospitals, other provider organizations, and purchasers. Performance measurement may improve accountability across the health care system.