Laws and Regulations in the Health Industry
Every day, the health and medical industry continues to grow and mature and is now one of the most needed and necessary industries in the world today. This is an industry I would really enjoy being a part of later on in my life because it is constantly changing, I would never do the same task every day and I would feel secure since it is consistently in demand. I job I would particularly like to have in this industry would be the career of plastic surgeon. Throughout history, this career never seems to stop changing and with change, new laws and regulations are needed for the benefit of not only the person holding the job position, but also the patients that they care for. These laws and regulations include sections under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Indian Health Services, The Pure Food and Drug Act, and other basic laws and regulations.
Nowadays, everything is so expensive. Prices continue to go up and it gets harder and harder to come out ahead at the end of the month. Thankfully, there are programs out there that can help out people who need it. There are more than a few ways that the Affordable Care Act will influence health care and insurance in the United States through the Obama health care plan. These changes include quality and reasonably priced health care for all Americans and was introduced on January 1, 2014. This law made it a necessity that nearly everyone have health insurance in the United States. This also inhibits insurance companies from being able to cast-off people with pre-existing problems. This health care bill assures to provide financial assistance for individuals and families who cannot afford health insurance.
Public programs play an expon...
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...stitutes earlier legal arrangements for Enduring Powers of Attorney and Court of Protection Receivers with converted and newly updated schemes. The Mental Capacity Act applies to people aged 16 and over and is extremely vital to the consumer.
These are just a very small portion of how many laws and regulations revolving around the health care program that actually exist. Thankfully, these laws were put in place to ensure the protection of the doctors and the consumer.
Works Cited
"The Law." Affordable Care Act. UPMC. Web. 14 May 2014. .
. Fraud . Michigan Helathcare Laywer. Web. 14 May 2014. .
"Mental Capacity Act." Patient.co.uk. N.p.. Web. 14 May 2014. .
One of the most controversial topics in the United States in recent years has been the route which should be undertaken in overhauling the healthcare system for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. It is important to note that the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make healthcare affordable; it provides low-cost, government-subsidized insurance options through the State Health Insurance Marketplace (Amadeo 1). Our current president, Barack Obama, made it one of his goals to bring healthcare to all Americans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This plan, which has been termed “Obamacare”, has come under scrutiny from many Americans, but has also received a large amount of support in turn for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include a decrease in insurance discrimination on the basis of health or gender and affordable healthcare coverage for the millions of uninsured. The opposition to this act has cited increased costs and debt accumulation, a reduction in employer healthcare coverage options, as well as a penalization of those already using private healthcare insurance.
Steiner, John E. (2013). Problems in health care law: challenges for the 21st century (10th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 made it illegal to gain access to personal medical information for any reasons other than health care delivery, operations, and reimbursements” (Shi & Singh, 2008, p. 166). “HIPAA legislation mandated strict controls on the transfer of personally identifiable health data between two entities, provisions for disclosure of protected information, and criminal penalties for violation” (Clayton 2001). “HIPAA also has privacy requirements that govern disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) placed in the medical record by physicians, nurses, and other health care providers” (Buck, 2011). Always remember conversations about a patient’s health care or treatment is a violation of HIPAA. “All PHI is included in the privacy requirements for example: the patient’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition; the provision of health care to the individual, or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual, and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual” (Buck, 2011). Other identifiable health information would be the patient’s name, address, birth date and Social Security Number (Keomouangchanh, 2011). (Word count 197)
US Congress created the HIPAA bill in 1996 because of public concern about how their private information was being used. It is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which Congress created to protect confidentiality, privacy and security of patient information. It was also for health care documents to be passed electronically. HIPAA is a privacy rule, which gives patients control over their health information. Patients have to give permission any health care provider can disclose any information placed in the individual’s medical records. It helps limit protected health information (PHI) to minimize the chance of inappropriate disclosure. It establishes national-level standards that healthcare providers must comply with and strictly investigates compliance related issues while holding violators to civil or criminal penalties if they violate the privacy of a person’s PHI. HIPAA also has boundaries for using and disclosing health records by covered entities; a healthcare provider, health plan, and health care clearinghouse. It also supports the cause of disclosing PHI without a person’s consent for individual healthcare needs, public benefit and national interests. The portability part of HIPAA guarantees patient’s health insurance to employees after losing a job, making sure health insurance providers can’t discriminate against people because of health status or pre-existing condition, and keeps their files safe while being sent electronically. The Privacy Rule protects individual’s health information and requires medical providers to get consent for the release of any medical information and explain how private health records are protected. It also allows patients to receive their medical records from any...
regulations - what's next? Health Matrix: Journal of Law and Medicine 2, no. 1 (Spring): 49- (22 p).
The Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” was designed to assure that all Americans regardless of health status have access to affordable health insurance. The Affordable Car Act was signed into law March 23, 2010. The primary goal of this act was to decrease barriers for obtaining health care coverage and allow Americans to access needed health care services (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d). After the legislation is fully implemented in 2014, all Americans will be required to have health insurance through their employer, a public program such as Medicaid and/or Medicare or by purchasing insurance through the health insurance marketplace exchange (Affordable Care Act Summary, n.d). I will identify three parts of The Affordable Care Act that I believe are important. First, I will talk about the requirement that insurance companies are no longer able to deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. Secondly, I will explain why physician payments are being shifted to value over volume. Lastly, I will discuss Medicaid expansion and why some states are not expanding at all.
Health Maintenance Organizations, or HMO’s, are a very important part of the American health care system. Also referred to as managed care programs, HMO's are combinations of doctors and insurance companies that are formed into one organization. This organization provides treatment to its members at fixed costs and decides on what treatment, if any, will be given based on the patient's or doctor's current health plan. Sometimes, no treatment is given at all. HMO's main concerns are to control costs and supposedly provide the best possible treatment to their patients. But it seems to the naked eye that instead their main goal is to get more people enrolled so that they can maintain or raise current premiums paid by consumers using their service. For HMO's, profit comes first- not patients' lives.
The Mental capacity Act 2005 is a very important piece of legislation, because it makes a real difference to the lives of people who may lack mental capacity. The act will empower patients to make their own decision; it will also protect people with lack capacity by providing them with a flexible framework that places individuals at the very heart of the decision-making process.it will make sure that the patients with lack of capacity participate as much as possible in any decisions made on their behalf, and that these are made in their best interests. It also allows people to plan ahead for a time in the future when they might lack the capacity, for any number of reasons, to make decisions for themselves. The Act covers a wide range of decisions and circumstances; the act is supported by the practical guidance, and the Code of Practice which provides information about how the act works in practice. (http://www.direct.gov.uk 2007)
The current state of affairs in the development of health policy in the United States is that it is constantly in flux and its implementation is disorganized and inefficient. As was the case with the recently passed Affordable Care Act legislation, political and lobbying interests often intersect in a manner that makes meaningful, most appropriate changes unlikely. The ACA kept in place the fractured nature of American health care and insurance, and appears to have benefited insurance companies by increasing enrollments rather than making the care provided better on a large scale. The majority of the plans on the created exchanges, up to 87%, are funded by federal subsidies (Blumenthal, Abrams, & Nuzum, 2015). These plans must cover individuals regardless of pre-existing conditions. The burden of the cost of insurance shifted to tax-payers and the young/healthy who are now overly burdened with mandatory coverage that they may or may not need in
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a federal that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 to systematically improve, reform, and structure the healthcare system. The ACA’s ultimate goal is to promote the health outcomes of an individual by reducing costs. Previously known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the ACA was established in order to increase the superiority, accessibility, and affordability of health insurance. President Obama has indicated the ACA is fully paid for and by staying under the original $900 billion dollar budget; it will be able to provide around 94% of Americans with coverage. In addition, the ACA has implemented that implemented that insurance companies can no longer deny c...
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) is designed to protect and empower individuals who make lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment. The law applies to individuals aged 16 and over.
Pozgar, G.D. (2012). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration. United States of America: Jones and Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Healthcare providers have had their doubts if the HIPAA mandate would ever be achieved. Opponents question how would this act be enforced, what are the requirements, and how could this act improve the transmission of health care information?
In March 2010, under the Obama administration, the United States enacted major health-care reform. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 expands coverage to the majority of uninsured Americans, through: (a) subsidies aimed at lower-income individuals and families to purchase coverage, (b) a mandate that most Americans obtain insurance or face a penalty,
The information in this paper will discuss the evolution of health care industry over the last decade. Over the last decade, many changes in technology, economic perspective, and finance have made a prevalent impact in health care. Health in the early 1990’s was simple and minimally effective as the different developments were introduced such as medications, immunizations, antibiotics, testing and treatment for fatal conditions and diseases, such as polio, chicken pox and many others.