1. 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) used to be the sole keeper of your physical and mental health information. With today's usage of electronic medical records software, information discussed in confidence with your doctor(s) will be recorded into electronic data files. The obvious concern - the potential for your records to be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations.
Fortunately, this catastrohic scenario will likely be avoided.
Congress addressed growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data, and in 1996 passed “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” (HIPAA). HIPAA sets the national standard for electronic transfers of health data. Before HIPAA, each state set their own standards. Now states must abide by the minimum standards set by HIPAA. States can enact laws to incorporate and/or strengthen the basic rights given by HIPAA.
How HIPAA's Privacy Rule Protects YOU; The Patient
Access to your own medical records
Prior to HIPAA, access to YOUR medical records were not guaranteed by federal law. Only about half the states had laws giving patients the right to see and copy their own medical records. You may be charged for copies but HIPAA sets fee limits.
You Must Be Given Notice Of Privacy Practices
How your medical information is used and disclosed must now be given to you. The notice must also tell you how to exercise your rights and how to file a complaint with your health care provider and with the DHHS Office of Civil Rights.
HIPAA Requires Accounting of Disclosure Details
You have the right to know who has accessed your health records for the prior six years, However there are several exceptions to the accounting requirement. Accounting is not required when records are disclosed to persons who see your records for treatment, payment, and health care operations. These individuals do not need to be listed in the disclosure log.
Filing A Complaint
If you believe a health care provider or health plan has violated your privacy you have the right to file a complaint with your health care provider and with DHHS.
Special Requests For Confidential Communications.
You can make special requests specifying how you would like your doctor's office handle confidential communication.
All health care employees will do everything within their power to protect the patient’s right to privacy. This means they will follow the HIPAA law closely. They will disclose information that is relevant to a specialist or treatment. Also, means they will release information that a patient has asked for as promptly as possible.
Overall these sources proved to provide a great deal of information to this nurse. All sources pertained to HIPAA standards and regulations. This nurse sought out an article from when HIPAA was first passed to evaluate the timeline prospectively. While addressing the implications of patient privacy, these articles relate many current situations nurses and physicians encounter daily. These resources also discussed possible violations and methods to prevent by using an informaticist and information technology.
... of potential threats such as unauthorized access of the patient information. Health care leaders must always remind their employees that casual review for personal interest of patients ' protected health information is unacceptable and against the law just like what happened in the UCLA health systems case (Fiske, 2011). Health care organizations need clear policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations. Through policies and procedures, entities covered under HIPAA must reasonably restrict access to patient information to only those employees with a valid reason to view the information and must sanction any employee who is found to have violated these policies.In addition, it is critical that health care organizations should implement awareness and training programs for all members of its workforce (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2013).
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...
. 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.
...explains and clarifies key provisions of the medical privacy regulation, this is a reliable source of information which was published last December (HIPAA, 1996). Guaranteeing the accuracy, security and protecting the privacy of all medical information is crucial and an ongoing challenge for many organizations.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, most commonly known by its initials HIPAA, was enacted by Congress then signed by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996. This act was put into place in order to regulate the privacy of patient health information, and as an effort to lower the cost of health care, shape the many pieces of our complicated healthcare system. This act also protects individuals from losing their health insurance if they lose their employment or choose to switch employers. . Before HIPAA there was no standard or consistency for the enforcement of the privacy for patients and the rules and regulations varied by state and organizations. HIPAA virtually affects everybody within the healthcare field including but not limited to patients, providers, payers and intermediaries. Although there are many parts of the HIPAA act, for the purposes of this paper we are going to focus on the two main sections and the four objectives of HIPAA, a which are to improve the portability (the capability of transferring from one employee to another) of health insurance, combat fraud, abuse, and waste in health insurance, to promote the expanded use of medical savings accounts, and to simplify the administration of health insurance.
Doctors, nurses, and medical assistants these people are supposed to ensure our safety and wellbeing, yet a small error can leak private information. That is why HIPAA was enacted in 1996, and became effective in the year 2001. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA serves to protect you and your medical files. You can decide when and with whom your information can be shared. Also, you can ask for your medical record and make sure it is correct, if it’s not you can file a complaint. HIPAA is valuable to keeping your medical files protected, but you may ask does it really work?
The flip side of the signing a confidentiality document under HIPAA policy healthcare officials many times has been frustrated because bounds they can’t cross. Many times family or friends who aren’t authorizes obtains valuable medical information are coming all hours of the day to ask for critical medical reason, the nurses, physicians and others officials bid my law not to get out information on the telephone, or in personal if the individual or individuals name aren’t on the privacy document. Having a ...
Medical facilities have to follow certain guidelines. They have to insure patient’s privacy in all areas. The medical facility has to protect the patient medical records and all healthcare information for the patient. If paper files are still in use at the medical facility, it should be stored, where it can be locked at close of business. Also, medical files should not be kept where individuals, other than those that need to use them, have access to them. Electronic medical records are being pushed for all facilities, large or small. The thought is less chance of someone having access that should not. There are firewalls, password use, encryption and other means of protecting electronic health records.
If you are in the healthcare industry, you have probably heard some rumblings about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, coolly referred to as HIPAA. The word is your medical practice will have to be HIPAA compliant by April 2003, but you're not exactly sure what this act mandates or how to accomplish it. In very basic terms, HIPAA has two primary components to which hospitals, health plans, healthcare "clearinghouses," and healthcare providers must conform: 1) Administrative simplification, which calls for use of the same computer language industry-wide; 2) Privacy protection, which requires healthcare providers to take reasonable measures to protect patients' written, oral, and electronic information. Congress passed HIPAA in an effort "to protect the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information. "1 Additionally, lawmakers "sought to reduce the administrative costs and burden associated with healthcare by standardizing data and facilitating transmission of many administrative and financial transactions." 1 HIPAA consultants say the new regulations should save the healthcare industry money in the long run, provide improved security of patient information, and allow patients to have better access to their own healthcare information.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is a law designed “to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes.”1 HIPAA mandates that covered entities must employ technological means to ensure the privacy of sensitive information. This white paper intends to study the requirements put forth by HIPAA by examining what is technically necessary for them to be implemented, the technological feasibility of this, and what commercial, off-the-shelf systems are currently available to implement these requirements.
Within the healthcare systems there needs to be management of access. Every patient encounter does not require access to a patient's entire medical record. Patient's medical records are their personal and private information and they have a right to keep them secure. As healthcare providers, we need to show our patients the respect they deserve as human beings. When caring for a patient it's important to be aware of all the information that is pertinent to their treatment, however there may be things in the patient's record that have nothing to do with what they are being seen for and this information needs to be kept private. Audit trails can prevent unnecessary access to patient's records by requiring healthcare staff to think twice before
Laws and regulations state there are no exceptions to disclosing information of a patient without consent. If a patient gives consent to a family member the healthcare provider may devise a code to give family members so they may confirm their identity.
For instance, patient A would like to know where his roommate patient B went to, we should simply reply, “patient details are confidential, we are not allowed to disclose.” Any form of document that contains data about the patient should be appropriately disposed of when they are no longer required.