The confidentiality use and transfer of patient medical records as well as personal and insurance information has long been a concern of the medical community. With the advances in electronic communication and data storage these issues have continued to be the source of great concern. In 1996, U.S. Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA. Among other things, HIPAA sets out strict requirements for certain covered entities for the control and transmittal of patient's electronic medical data. The covered entities include dentists, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, dental labs and medical labs. The transfer of this information on an open network is required by HIPAA to be encrypted. If the data is not encrypted during transmission, then the data must be transferred on a closed and secured system or network.
Modern medical practices, especially dental practices, are highly automated offices. Most new dental practices maintain all of their patient information on a computer database. The information ranges from the individual's name, home address, phone numbers, social security number and insurance policy as well as the intra oral photographs and X-rays taken during examination and examination notes. Were it not for the security requirements of HIPAA, this information could be readily transferred from one provider to an insurance company or dental lab as an attachment to an ordinary e-mail. When sending an e-mail via the Internet the sender has no control over the path which the message takes. The message and its attachments can be broken up into one or more packets and then sent over any one of a near infinite number of paths between the sender and the recipient. While in route, the message can be intercepted and opened. The information contained therein can be duplicated and the e-mail or message continued or put back in place and continued on its way to the recipient with neither the sender nor recipient knowing the transmission has been intercepted.
The sender can ensure the confidentiality of the contents of a message sent over the Internet via e-mail by the use of encryption. However the use of encryption on a ordinary Internet e-mail is cumbersome and can complicate the recipient's opening and use of the data including corruption of attached files.
In referring a patient to another care provider or filing an insurance claim for services provided to a patient, as well as sending information to a lab to have work done for a patient, HIPAA requires the sending as well as the receipt of the patient information be an authenticated source. While it is possible to send this information between two points on an authenticated basis without it having a larger network in place, it becomes prohibitive based on the amount of time and effort that is needed to set up an authenticated system between two individual parties. This solution becomes even more unworkable when considering that any care provider must exchange information with a number of insurance companies as well as multiple labs and specialized care providers. These same problems arise when trying to solve this problem through the use of dedicated networks or lines. What is needed is a system and method to provide secure electronic communication between care providers, labs, insurance companies and hospitals for communication and data transfers containing confidential patient information.