Healthcare industry, listen up: You've got a consumer distrust issue on your hands. The majority of American consumers continue to have serious doubts over the privacy and security of their medical records – so much so that a sizable number of them actually withheld information from care providers over those concerns. 

 

This according to a new Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT survey, which took a pulse of consumer perceptions toward healthcare privacy and security. The numbers are telling.

 

After surveying more than 2,000 consumers, ONC officials found that about three-quarters of them were either very or somewhat concerned over the privacy and security of their medical records. What's more, 10 percent of respondents withheld information from their healthcare provider who used an electronic health record. (This compared to the 6 percent who withheld data from providers who used paper medical records.) The differences between the two were not statistically different, ONC pointed out. 

 

[See also: Security: healthcare's fixer-upper and Healthcare's privacy maven Deborah Peel.]

 

The lion's share of Americans are also not keen on their medical records being sent electronically or through fax, with about 60 percent of consumers indicating concern over unauthorized access of their medical records when they're sent in these two forms. 

 

These numbers appear to align with a similar study conducted by Harvard researchers just last year. The study, which assessed the privacy perceptions of U.S. adults, found similarly that more than 12 percent of the 1,500 respondents withheld information from care providers over medical security concerns. Findings supported "the need for enhanced and sustained measures to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of PHI," Harvard School of Public Health researchers wrote in the study.

 

Despite all these concerns, as ONC officials highlighted in Tuesday's HIT Policy Committee meeting, most respondents still "wanted healthcare providers to use an EHR despite any potential privacy and security concerns," with some 76 percent indicating this. 

 

"In spite of the fact that a majority of Americans expressed concerns regarding the privacy and security of both their medical records and with sharing of their medical records, support for EHRs and electronic health information exchange remained consistently strong," said Vaishali Patel, senior advisor at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.