The Agency for Health Care Administration has launced an interactive “Crosswalk Tool” for retrieving information on privacy and security laws and regulations related to electronic health records and health information exchange.

The Crosswalk Tool is the latest addition to the agency’s Health Information Privacy and Security Resource Center available at www.FHIN.net.

“People want to know that their health information is protected when they share it with healthcare providers,” Secretary Holly Benson said. “We created this tool to ensure that providers know the laws that protect their patients and their information.”

The Crosswalk Tool is an educational resource for healthcare providers and consumers regarding protections for the use of personal health information when it is exchanged among providers. The database allows Web site visitors to search for federal and state laws related to privacy and security of health information and helps them determine which law governs the sharing of particular information.

The agency developed the Crosswalk Tool through a federally funded grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. This federal project created a database titled the Comparative Analysis Matrix, a collection of almost 150 topics (see the Crosswalk Tool’s “Report” feature for a listing of categories and topics), typically addressed by state law, that involve or impact health information. Florida is the first state to use the Comparative Analysis Matrix and create an online search tool for healthcare providers and consumers, according to AHCA.

“Many healthcare providers are familiar with federal requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), but the Crosswalk Tool shows federal and state requirements side-by-side, eliminating many hours of research and giving more time for patient care,” said Karen Koch, vice-president of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health and a member of the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration Project Legal Workgroup.

The site also contains information about the activities of the Florida Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration project, a national initiative in which Florida and many other states participated that concluded in July. The HISPC project developed privacy and security solutions that will expedite the adoption and use of electronic health records through a collaborative process among the states.