Coalition of hospitals, health plans and others urge for stronger guidance around third-party apps

The Confidentiality Coalition and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) have expressed concerns about the potential misuse of patient health information by unregulated third-party applications in a letter to the secretaries of Commerce and Health and Human Services. The groups are also worried that patients may not have sufficient information about third-party apps and the risk of their information not being protected by HIPAA. They have offered recommendations to increase security and protect privacy.