The development of specifications and discussion of business models for ensuring speech privacy in the healthcare industry

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was developed, among other reasons, to hold healthcare providers accountable for the privacy of patient’s personal and medical information. It includes language addressing the need for ‘‘reasonable safeguards’’ for speech privacy and oral communication in a healthcare setting. After 50 years of development, speech privacy science and mechanisms are well understood. However, current specifications cannot be directly applied and are not specifically written to address the application of the current acoustical knowledgebase to the health care industry’s need for compliance. This is a discussion of the state of existing privacy technology and specifications; the ability and availability of mechanisms currently in the health care industry as a possible route for implementation of the regulation; the state of development of specification to address specifically the industry’s needs; and a potential business model for implementation.