Vulnerabilities in Health Data Privacy causing tension among Patients

More than 92% of patients believe privacy is a right, and their health data should not be available for purchase, survey shows. Close to 75% of the 1,000 patients surveyed by Savvy Cooperative expressed concern about protecting the privacy of personal health data, and only 20% of patients said they knew the scope of companies and individuals with access to their data. The survey indicated patients are most comfortable with physicians and hospitals having access to personal health data, and least comfortable with social media sites, employers and technology companies having access to the same data. The survey found that an overwhelming percentage of patients demand accountability, transparency and control as it relates to health data privacy. About 94% of patients want companies to be held legally accountable for uses of their health data, while 93% want health app developers to be transparent about how their products use and share personal health data. Most patients said they're "very" or "extremely" concerned about discriminatory uses of personal health data to exclude them from insurance coverage (64%), employment (56%) or opportunities for healthcare (59%).