HIPAA is the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The primary goal of the law is to make it easier for people to keep health insurance, protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information ad help the healthcare industry control administrative costs. HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA was first introduced in 1996. It was made a law by the United States Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects an individual’s medical records and other personal health information. Some of the things that HIPAA does for a patient are it gives patients more control over their health information. It sets boundaries on the use and release of health records. It establishes appropriate guidelines that health care providers and others must do to protect the privacy of the patients’ health information. It holds violators accountable, in court that can be imposed if they violate patients’ privacy rights by HIPAA. Overall HIPAA makes it to where the health information can’t b...
The knowledge about the HIPAA Privacy and Security rules; its coverage and benefits; its development and updates will help an individual to understand the law to effectively manage and protect his or her own personal health record. The advent of computer technology and the HIPAA terms that were associated with information system will be discussed. Some of the experiences with HIPAA will shared to give a better picture and understanding of the law.
Since the formed President Bill Clinton signed HIPAA policy in to law, it has been a driving for the healthcare facilities though out the United State. This law has been shaping the healthcare facilities better conditions. HIPAA policy has causes the healthcare facilities to have document in place when a patient is admitted to the hospital seeing physician at clinic or all confidentiality document must be sign up on a admitted. When these documents signed, the patient and the others person who authorized to view any of the documents, for example: Medical records of the patient medication, diseases, tests results, etc.
It was passed partly because of the failure of congress to pass comprehensive health insurance legislation earlier in the decade. The general goals of HIPAA are to: * Increase number of employees who have health insurance; * Reduce health care fraud and abuse; * Introduce/implement administrative simplifications in order to augment effectiveness of health care in the US; * Protect the health information of individuals against access without consent or authorization; * Give patients more rights over their private data; * Set better boundaries for the use of medical information; * Hold people accountable for misuse; * Encourage administrative simplification (in the form of digitalization of information) to help reduce costs. HIPAA affects covered entities which are defined as: – Health plans; – Health care clearinghouses; – Health care providers who transmit health information in electronic form for certain standard transactions. Even though HIPAA was singed into law over seven years ago, its effects are mostly being felt now.
. HIPAA privacy rules are complicated and extensive, and set forth guidelines to be followed by health care providers and other covered entities such as insurance carriers and by consumers. HIPAA is very specific in its requirements regarding the release of information, but is not as specific when it comes to the manner in which training and policies are developed and delivered within the health care industry. This paper will discuss how HIPAA affects a patient's access to their medical records, how and under what circumstances personal health information can be released to other entities for purposes not related to health care, the requirements regarding written privacy policies for covered entities, the training requirements for medical office employees and the consequences for not following the policy.
“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)
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is a statute endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1996. It offers protections for many American workers which improves portability and continuity of health insurance coverage. The seven titles of the final law are Title I - Health care Access , Portability, Title II - Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse; administrative simplification; Medical Liability Reform; Title III – Tax-related Health Provisions; Title IV – Application and Enforcement of Group Health Plan Requirements; Title V – Revenue Offsets; Title XI – General Provisions, Peer Review, Administrative Simplification; Title XXVII – Assuring Portability, Availability and Renewability of Health Insurance Coverage. (Krager & Krager, 2008)
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...
...proactive. With the way that HIPAA was drafted, then add the possible penalties for violators, lead physicians and medical facilities to withold information from individuals who have a right to it. After reviewing the rules of the HIPAA, the legislation found health care providers were unsure of their legal privacy responsibilities and often responded with an overly guarded approach to disclosing information. To date these rules are still confusing and need to made clearer.
HIPAA is there to help protected all the patients information no matter if is written down, oral and or an electronic record (Stember, 2005). There are more than one HIPAA rules that protect all aspects of the PHI. Some of those rules let the patient take hold of their healthcare. This lets the patient have more control over their health records. HIPAA lets the patient get their records when they want to view them. But they can’t get and medical records that are involved in a criminal or proceeding of any kind, and do not have the right to psychotherapy notes (Green, 2017).
Leaving sensitive health information inadequately stored or unsecured when scheduling patient appointments is a HIPAA violation of willing negligence (Iron Mountain, 2015). For example, the patient’s medical diagnosis or reason for referral must be known to schedule an office visit with the appropriate health care provider. If this protected health information is visible and becomes public, serious legal issues may occur. Additionally, if a scheduler discusses patient information in a public area of the hospital, in an elevator, in the lunchroom, in the hallway, or in any location that is not private, this is a violation of unwilling negligence (Iron Mountain, 2015). Furthermore, telling friends and family about patients that are scheduled
1. What is the difference between Introduction Today, you have more reason than ever to care about the privacy of your medical information. This information was once stored in locked file cabinets and on dusty shelves in the medical records department. Your doctor(s) are the sole keeper of your physical and mental health information.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act( PPACA) commonly called as Affordable Care Act ( ACA) is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March23, 2010.It was enacted with the goals of increasing the quality and affordability of health insurance by introducing a number of mechanisms—including mandates, subsidies, and insurance exchanges. This has an overall increase in utilization of health care services in all the sectors.
The utilization of mobile devices and cloud computing in health organizations should be committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of protected health information and understanding the importance of keeping this information confidential and secure. The electronic health records and protected health information should be managed to ensure its security, confidentiality, integrity, and availability for authorized purposes. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) via the mobile devices and cloud computing should maintain a process to guarantee compliance with applicable provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). All members
After looking over articles concerning HIPAA violations I went with the first article I looked over because it was so extreme to read! My first thought as I was reading was “ oh my, oh my this didn’t even happen on accident.” The article I chose to write on is called, “Californian Sentenced to Prison for HIPAA Violation”. April 29, 2010. The first sentence of this article is what drew me in. A former UCLA health system employee named Huping Zhou became the first person in our nation to go under imprisonment for violating HIPAA. Before being employed as a medical researcher at UCLA, Zhou was a licensed cardiothoracic surgeon in China. While employed as a medical researcher, Zhou took it upon himself to illegally view and read up on his coworkers and other high profile celebrities medical records. After receiving a notice that UCLA was going to dismiss him because of low job performance in illegal access. While on trial he admits to accessing UCLA records 323 times during a 3 week period. Lets just sate this as well, he wasn’t employed at the time either. He admits that he had no legitimate reason to after he was terminated from his job.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (PSQIA), Confidential Information and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA), and the Freedom of Information Act all provide legal protection under many laws. It also involves ethical protection. The patient must be able to completely trust the healthcare provider by having confidence that their information is kept safe and not disclosed without their consent. Disclosing any information to the public could be humiliating for them. Patient information that is protected includes all medical and personal information related to their medical records, medical treatments, payment records, date of birth, gender, and