Final answer:
A Covered Entity may access a medical record under specific conditions, like for public health activities or under FOIA exceptions. However, the sharing of digital records poses questions about balancing treatment costs, patient quality of life, and privacy risks.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering whether a Covered Entity (CE) may use, disclose or request a whole medical record, it's necessary to recognize that the health records maintenance and sharing is tightly regulated to protect patient privacy. There are certain situations where a CE may have legitimate access to a medical record. For instance, when there's a reasonable exception under the Freedom of Information Act, such as medical records for government employees, or for public health activities like those conducted by epidemiologists who may need to review the records for identifying patterns of disease or other health-related issues.
To develop policies that strike a balance between treatment costs, patient quality of life, and privacy risks, several questions need to be considered:
- What measures are in place to safeguard patient privacy when records are shared?
- How do the costs of treatments and diagnoses impact policy development?
- What are the implications for patient quality of life?
Sharing of digital records among health providers is one initiative to improve healthcare overall; however, this raises important concerns about individual privacy that must be addressed in policy frameworks.