Ethical Issues In Health Care

During my Bachelor’s degree, I had to do a final year project. It was a group project. The 4 of us had decided on a topic and then allocated specific topic to each one of us. Three of us did what we were assigned. But the fourth girl always had an excuse for not completing her work. The first few weeks her excuses seemed genuine and as she was our friend, we completed all of her work too. Our ethical dilemma was whether to report it to our project mentor or not. Finally, a few months into the project, we decided that to discuss the situation with our mentor. But, as the fourth person in our group has ‘A’ grade throughout the Bachelor’s program, our mentor found it difficult to believe that the person was not working. After that, our mentor made sure the fourth girl in the group did the work assigned to her, but the mentor also scolded the three of us

for not coming to her with the problem sooner.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) is an Act passed by the US Congress which states a set of generally acceptable security standards for health information protection and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is its extension.

The main ethical dilemma in Healthcare industry is access to information and protecting privacy rights of patients. Handling sensitive data about patient information, storing and transferring it from one system to another is an issue. Storing the data files properly is also essential. The healthcare personnel should not have to go through lengthy paperwork just to access a single record. Patients and auditors can ask for access to the information at any time and so the information needs to be transmitted efficiently and safely to them. Similarly, critical information should not be difficult to retrieve also for a doctor. Suppose in an emergency situation like an accident, the doctor needs to access patient records. The doctor should not have to go through multi-factor authentication system in order to gain access to the records.

[1]
Another ethical dilemma is national security vs. the right to privacy. Freedom Act of 2015 imposed restrictions on collection of telecommunication data of US citizens by US security agencies. But the information is still being gathered by private telecommunication companies. The government can still have access to them as they ask for access from private telecommunication companies. According to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, for surveillance on any person living in the United States of America who is not an US Citizen, the government agencies should have an order from the court. Also, the US intelligence agencies can track any person for 72 hours since the person lands in USA if the intelligence agencies suspect the person to be a threat to the nation. [2]
References:
[1] HIPPA/HITECH Compliance
https://www.metricstream.com/solution_briefs/HIPAA_HITECH_compliance_solution_brief_healthcare.htm
[2] USA Freedom Act, House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
https://judiciary.house.gov/issue/usa-freedom-act/