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Over the past few years, the availability of electronic health information to patients has increased (AHA Trend Report, 2016). About 54% of individuals who were offered online medical records (OMR) viewed it at least once in a year (Patel, 2018). As such, availability not only provides access to health data but also facilitates routine care tasks and helps connect with providers more effectively or efficiently. State- and federal-level laws and regulations (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPPA) are in place to protect individuals’ healthcare data, which have been increasingly used or made accessible; however, there are many instances of healthcare data breaches in recent past (HIPPA Journal, 2018). In 2017, 83% of members of the American Medical Association (AMA Trend Report, 2017) reported experiencing some forms of cyber-attack. With such increases in incidents of online data breaches (e.g., Anthem Inc. event in 2015), individuals have become concerned about much wider unwarranted exposure as opposed to those in the past being restricted to known persons (e.g., family members, friends, employers, etc.) or other acquaintances (Sankar et al., 2003; Jenkins et al., 2005). Healthcare data breaches may inflict economic, mental, and social burdens on individuals because of sensitive or personally identifiable information (PII) (e.g., medical diagnosis, date of birth, employment history, etc.) (Appari et al., 2010). Quite understandably, patients revealed their concerns for health information privacy and security or distrust of the electronic healthcare data exchange system (Ancker et al., 2015).
With the advent of information systems, the concept and relevance of healthcare information privacy and security have significantly changed. Yet, few studies undertook a model-based examination of online medical record adoption/use. While using online medical records for personal health management may empower consumers, the security and privacy of sensitive health information may be important to them as well. Therefore, uncovering the relationship between adoption and security/privacy along with other factors that may influence this relationship is vital and much needed. In light of heightened consumer concerns about potential harms associated with online healthcare information use, this paper attempted to answer the following questions at the population level. 1) Do privacy and security concerns affect online medical records use? 2) What are the factors that influence the role of healthcare consumers’ privacy and security concerns in using online medical records?