Medicaid patient records go online, security at issue

Medical records belonging to state Medicaid patients have gone electronic. In July, the South Carolina Health Information Exchange made 800,000 medical histories of disabled and poor residents available to physicians, clinics and hospitals.

Privacy advocates urge caution. "Medical privacy for many people is one of the most important forms of privacy," said Graham Boyd, interim executive director of state's national office for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Here's how SCHIEx (pronounced sky-ex) works. When a Medicaid patient visits a clinic, the doctor can call up the patient's medical history through a password-protected Web portal.

Claims data already existed electronically, but was not immediately available to providers, said Jeff Stensland, director of public information for the state's Medicaid agency.

The information, including prescription and treatment history, belongs to the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services and will not be housed on providers' computers. Records will be bounced to providers when they are requested.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.