Health Information Compliance Alert

Question: What is the purpose of an electronic signature? How would it protect our patients' protected health information?

Answer: The electronic (digital) signature is a form of verification that most hospitals and providers are not ready to deal with. Defined broadly, the digital signature is a method of providing a virtual signature that both identifies and authenticates the person signing and implies that person's approval of the information being signed.

"Real digital signatures do a great job of ensuring a person is who she says she is," explains C. Jon Burke, a data security specialist with California's Toshiba American Medical Systems and Toshiba American MRI.

Problem: However, the process of enforcing and using electronic signatures could hurt more than it helps. "There's no way to use [electronic signatures] without making security too draconian to work efficiently," Burke says.

"The whole point of technology is to facilitate movement of data," reminds Kerry Kearney, a partner in the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith.

Reality: Implementing a standard that people can't use or that impedes the flow of business is contrary to the nature of technology, says Kearney.

The bottom line: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is -- at least, it is when it comes to signing documents electronically rather than expending energy on faxes or postal mail, experts say. Though electronic signature standards "would make it harder for a person to hack into a system and assume an identity," the industry is not yet ready for the measures it would have to take for this standard to be worth all the headache, Kearney states.