On my research it comes to my mind that American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is a great organization with a “primarily goal is to provide the knowledge, resources and tool to advance health information professional practices and standards for the delivery of quality care” (AHIMA, n.a). As of now, one of the topic that everyone is talking about is the My Health I.D. which AHIMA send a petition to the White House, asking for removal of a ban that prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from participating the efforts to create a patient identification system. In addition, I do believe that having an identification or specific patient identifier for each and every individual in United States can and will help
How would you like to keep track of your personal health information record in your computer at home? The electronic data exchange was one of the goals of the government to improve the delivery and competence of the U.S. healthcare system. To achieve this plan, the U.S. Congress passed a regulation that will direct its implementation. The Department of Health and Human Services is the branch of the government that was assigned to oversee the HIPAA rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a national public law in the United States that was created to improve health insurability, prevent insurance abuse and to protect the privacy and security of a person’s health information.
The federal government has taken a stance to standardized care by creating incentive programs that are mandated under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009. This act encourages healthcare providers and healthcare institutions to adopt Meaningful use in order to receive incentives from Medicare and Medicaid. Meaningful use is the adoption of a certified health record system that acquires or obtains specified objectives about a patient. The objectives or measures are considered gold standard practices with the EHR system. Examples of the measures include data entry of vital signs, demographics, allergies, entering medical orders, providing patients with electronic copies of their records, and many more pertinent information regarding the patient (Friedman et al, 2013, p.1560).
With continuous use of the networks, more and more institutions will be able to follow their example. Each of these have become a positive impact to the way health information technology is being used. The patients that are being helped are tremendous. Sooner than later both the CHIN and RHINO records will be able to be made better and be transformed into a NHIN that will be widespread nationwide and not just to a certain area. The HITECH Act will also continue to be helpful in increase use of health information technology and resolve the problems associated with the privacy and security of the vital information contained in the system. As years go by more and more new systems will be created and health information exchange will become advanced, in a way that it will change the way people view health care
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was put into place as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and was signed and made a part of law in February 2009. It sponsors the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology. (www.healthcareitnews.com). There was $22 billion and of this $19.2 billion was supposed to be used as a method to increase the use or the Electronic Health Records by the doctors and healthcare facilities. (www.hitechanswers.net).
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to safeguard patient privacy. It protects patients’ health information (PHI) and allows patients to have control over the distribution of their information. Due to the advancement in technology and shift from paper to electronic files, the development of both state and federal laws occurred to protect the electronic health care transactions, code sets, unique health identifiers and security (DHHS, 2016). In addition, due to e-PHI a Privacy Rule was published in December 2000, to protect health information under these entities: health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and health care providers who conduct certain health care transactions electronically. This law implements various types of health facilities; including, hospitals, doctor offices, pharmacies, health plans, and other clinical care sites (Field, p. 199).
Upon its initiation this was forwarded to the Senate Community Affairs committee and known as “Healthcare Identifiers Bill (HI)” as proposed by Ms Nicola Roxon, Minister of Health, for inquiry and report on significant changes. The Minister of health has relied on Medicare as secure guardians of Medical information. In this case that the HI bill will have not much objections and gain support of the senate committee and thus earn favourable endorsement.
During the 1980’s, medical-related situations continuously occurred that made patients question their insurance policies as well as the privacy of their health care. Congress worked to create a bill containing strict rules regarding insurance policies and availability for one to keep their insurance if they are to move jobs. These rules were soon applied to all medical facilities and faculty and titled the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act”.The H.I.P.A.A. policies brought about change in professionalism, medical standards, taxing, and enforcement. Throughout history, maintaining patient privacy has always been a problem in the medical field. Patients have the right to their privacy and the information that they do not want to disclose should be kept privately. Since this was an overly occurring problem, the congress believed that they should make a law to fix this problem. On August 21, 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by congress and President Bill Clinton.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) affects every aspect of health care from patient privacy to insurance coverage. The federal act was first passed in 1996, yet the first major rule did not go into effect until 2003, protecting patient privacy. HIPAA ultimately came into effect due to the issues regarding patient privacy, security and coverage. Another major concern for both health care workers and the public was the exchange of patient information from one facility to another. Until the relatively recent decision to enforce HIPAA, a patient’s medical record was primarily recorded and maintained on paper and stored in locked cabinets or drawers. Not only was this method inefficient, but patients were also starting to become increasingly concerned over the privacy of these documents.
The Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, better known as the Privacy Rule, that took effect in April 2003 for large entities and a year later for small ones, was established as the first set of national standards for the protection of health information. This rule was issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to meet the requirement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The Privacy Rule was born out of a need for health information to be appropriately protected yet still allowing the health information to be shared to ensure quality health care and to protect the public’s health and well being. It allows for the protection of the privacy of the patient and yet it also permits vital uses of information.
HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was put in place by the Federal Government for several reasons; better portability of health insurance for employees, to prevent fraud and abuse within the healthcare delivery system, and simplification of administrative functions associated with healthcare delivery (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). Due to sensitive healthcare information being shared federal regulations were also put into place, resulting in the “Privacy Rule” and “Security Rule”. The Privacy Rule limits the use and disclosure of patient information. The Security Rule protects the patients’ healthcare information from improper use or disclosure, to maintain information integrity, and ensure its availability (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). Both regulations apply to protected health information (PHI) which is any form of health information that can be used to identify an individual patient. Practitioners who refer to HIPPA are not referring to the act itself but the “Privacy Rule” and “Security Rule” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). It is extremely important to understand these concepts as a student in the clinical setting and how each hospital enforces these concepts. Before starting at any clinical site there is an extensive orientation about HIPPA regarding what is appropriate and not appropriate when it comes to patient information and the repercussions of violating HIPPA. In this paper I will discuss Akron General’s rules and policies regarding their EHR, PHI, EPHI, and social media.
Learning Experience Journal Entry – Director of Health Information Management and the Supervisor of Medical Records Coder
Healthcare services should be provided to all people without discriminations of any nature. Professionals in the healthcare sector should ensure that while attending to patients, they act in accordance to the medical laws. Agencies regulating the healthcare industry ensure that all the health professionals act in accordance to the medical laws and people have access to high quality medical attention.
Case 1 -- You work in a busy multi-specialty clinic with a high patient volume. The physicians enter the type of code that will yield the greatest reimbursement. You suspect the codes are not accurate.
The American Health Information Management Association is a body of health information professionals that majorly concerns itself with the improvement of the quality of medical records (Harman 104). These health data records are vital for the purposes of monitoring the progress of patients, performance improvements and for improving outcomes.
• My ability to review and convey complex information, ideas and concepts is evidenced through application in tertiary studies in Health Information Management. For example, my major project for my professional placement was to deliver a presentation on the ESIS project. I was able to explain the complexity of the ESIS database, describe the steps I had to undertake to analyse the data and orally explain in a clear and concise manner the outcomes of the project. I provided a written version of the presentation in order to provide quantitative information for my audience and be able to follow the process from start to end how I had conducted the audit. • My ability to write has been demonstrated through consistent application in university