GRAPEVINE, TX – With security and privacy of patient information paramount as the government and healthcare industry work to transform the system, the American Health Information Management Association is calling for national standards to protect patient information.

AHIMA's leaders on Monday released a Health Information Bill of Rights, a seven-point list they say is a model for protecting patient data. The document, unveiled at the 53,000-member group's 81st annual convention in Grapevine, Texas, was crafted by a blue ribbon panel and approved by the AHIMA board of directors.

Wendy Mangin, the group's immediate past president, led the panel of healthcare information management professionals. She said neither the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act nor HIPAA rules provide consumers with adequate protection.

Linda Kloss, CEO of AHIMA, said the group has not proposed legislation, but these principles could spur stricter healthcare data security laws.

According to Vera Rulon, president of AHIMA's board of directors, the principles address the protection of consumer health information from three basic standpoints: appropriate access, optimal accuracy and the highest standards of privacy and security for everyone.

As AHIMA leaders see it, privacy is not just for celebrities like George Clooney and Britney Spears.

"More often than not, those who fall prey to misappropriated, misused, lost or inaccurate health information are regular citizens like you or me who fall victim to greed, desperation, inattention, inappropriate access, inadequate security or any of a number of preventable circumstances," Rulon said. "We believe it is time for the health information profession – we who know better, care deeply and believe more can be done – to do more."

The Health Information Bill of Rights' seven protections was made necessary by "repeated abuses of access, accuracy, privacy and security of the most basic rights of individuals whose trust has been betrayed and dignity compromised," said Rulon.

In calling for a national privacy standard, Mangin said: "If your health records move seamlessly over state lines in service to your care and wellness, then it only makes sense that the rules governing the privacy of those records should enjoy the same portability and the consumer the same protection as a consequence."

AHIMA plans to keep its momentum building through Health Information and Technology Week, scheduled for Nov. 1-7, when it will offer a free wall poster for healthcare organizations to display in waiting areas and a certificate that states their pledge to uphold the seven protections in the Health Information Bill of Rights.