DirectTrust today announced the launch of Partnership for Patients Program (P4PP), an initiative that will make it easier for patients and health care consumers to securely share personal health information with medical professionals at hospitals, offices, clinics and other locations via secure email. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that health care providers provide access to personal health information in the format and file type—including electronic—requested by the patient.
Individuals who join P4PP will have access to DirectTrust’s nationwide network of 58,000 health care organizations and more than 1.2 million email addresses. Participants can then take advantage of Direct exchange, which enables electronic health information exchange as easy to use as regular email, with one big difference: Direct protects information through encryption and identity assurance, so the privacy of the information is kept secure and reaches only those individuals who are authorized to receive and use it.
P4PP aims to remove the barriers of cost and complexity that can make it difficult for patients and consumers to engage in two-way digital communication with their care providers, even in the “age of the Internet.” P4PP features DirectTrust members whose products and services offer consumers and patients secure email on the same network used by tens of thousands of their providers and hospitals.
DirectTrust is a non-profit health care industry alliance created by and for participants in the Direct exchange network used for secure, interoperable exchange of personal health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved care coordination.
