Preview

HIPAA Case Study Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
611 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
HIPAA Case Study Essay
1. Under HIPAA, are you legally allowed to view this patient’s medical information? Why or why not?
Yes, I am legally allowed to look at the patient’s medical information because I was taking care of them. It is my job to make sure the patients has the correct information about the information, medication, and the aftercare instructions.
2. In this case, how would you be able to correct your error and provide the missing documents and instructions to the patient while still protecting patient confidentiality under HIPAA?
I will be able to look at the patient’s cover page in their medical information for their contact information. I will call the patient and let them know they will need to come back to the hospital. If they do not answer, I
…show more content…
Healthcare professionals could receive a hefty fine/penalty depending on the breach. A healthcare professional could receive a minimum $100 fine per violation, not knowingly that they violated HIPAA, all the way up to a $50,000 per violation, due to willful neglect and is not corrected (HIPAA Violation and Enforcement). Also with these penalties they could receive jail time between 1- 5 years, depending on the severity of the breach. Other consequences could be termination from their job, or revocation of their license or accreditation. Healthcare professional who breach confidentiality may lose trust from their patients and also lose the reputation.
5. Identify and explain two exceptions to confidentiality in healthcare settings.
Child abuse and for the greater good are just two of several exceptions to confidentiality. Healthcare professionals are legally required to report any suspected child abuse and can disclose medical information to Child Protective Services and investigation services. Though confidentiality is one of the uppermost priorities in health care, there are times when the best interest of the public outweighs the protection of a patient’s private medical information (Stanford & Connor, 2014). For an instance, if someone has a highly contagious disease, alerting the public can help ensure their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    HS101-02 Uint 8 Project

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages

    HS101: A Day in the Life – Unit 8 Project Part I: A patient has just left the office after having an outpatient surgery procedure. As you get ready to put away the patient’s file, you realize that the patient has forgotten to take his prescriptions and after-care instruction sheets home with him. It is vital for proper healing and recovery for the patient to have these documents. You know you will have to contact this patient so you look inside for his contact information and signed HIPAA Release of Information form.…

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    HIPAA protects any individual’s past their present and future information whether it be physical, mental or any other condition that affects that person. It also protects anything that identifies the individual involved, that would their name, address, birth date and Social Security number. Nothing should be discussed about any individual that an agency is helping. It should not be discussed with anyone who is not directly involved with the case even if that person works for the agency. If they are not involved then it should not be discussed.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some key points in the article were that the people in the court we saying HIPAA violations are very rare and mostly done as mistakes. I do think everyone has their mistakes but every nurse learns those rules to HIPAA. I believe that if you don't want anyone to speak upon your personal information then don't speak upon theirs. I will never speak about a patient's information to anyone else because I know that patient is already going through things and I wouldn't…

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. Under HIPAA, are you legally allowed to view this patient’s medical information? Why or why not?…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article “ Hospitals fined $4.8M for HIPAA Violation” by Erin McCann reports that several health care organizations are in HIPAA violation due to human error. A hospital and a medical center were fined because patients information were available on line. The breach was due to a physician who developed an application for the hospital and a medical center. During the process of transferring patient information to one computer at home accidently made the information available on the Internet. A patient’s family member discovered it when they notice their family members private health information was on line.…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    HIPAA affects the billing process by making sure that patient demographics are accurate and kept confidential. There should be in the patient’s file an authorization to allow a practice to use the confidential information and to bill that patient information to carrier for services. Without this authorization on file the practice may not release or disclose any patient information regarding any treatment that this patient has had and therefore will not be able to seek reimbursement from the payer (Valerius, Bayes, Newby, & Seggern, 2008). A patients’ medical records, the progress notes, reports and other clinical materials are legal documents that belong to the provider who created them. But the provider cannot withhold the information in the records unless providing it would be detrimental to the patients’ health. This information belongs to the patient. Medical insurance specialist handles issues such as requests for information from patient records. They are trained to know what information can be released about patients’ conditions and treatments. What information can be legally shared with other providers and health plans and what information must the patient specifically authorize to be released (Valerius, Bayes, Newby, & Seggern, 2008). Because the claims are sent electronically, encryption is required for security, the process of encoding information in such a way that only the…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The breach of confidentiality is that the patient information was given out to someone that wasn't allowed to have it. The patient signed a documents that their information was given out unless they signed something. The penalty to violating HIPAA is jail time and or probation. You never know what could actually happen but I know it is federal offense. The person who released it without consent could be fined as well.…

    • 72 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bio Ethics Project 8

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. Under HIPAA, are you legally allowed to view this patient’s medical information? Why or why not?…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hipaa Summary

    • 1389 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Congress intended HIPAA to protect individually identifiable health information. Any entity, including a physician's office, a hospital or other health care facility, or an insurer that deals with personal health information must follow strict rules about how to handle that information to avoid disclosing it to someone not authorized to see it. For example, Health and Human Services allows physicians and insurance companies to exchange individually identifiable health information to pay a health claim, but would not allow them to release it publicly. Penalties for violating the regulations include civil fines of up to $50,000 per violation, according to Health and Human Services.…

    • 1389 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    HIPAA defines as criminal the use or disclosure (by individuals or institutions) of confidential medical information of a patient for any other purposes than treatment, payment, or health care operations. Such violations carry fines and/or imprisonment (Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality).…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to McWay (2010), protected health information pertains to any information concerning the health status and the provision of health care for a specific person, and health care providers are “charged under the law with the obligation to maintain patient-specific health information in a confidential manner”. In addition, third parties are also allow to have access to patient-specific information if there is an appropriate request (McWay, 2010). This is according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the state laws and regulation that pertains the release of the protected health information. The HIPAA privacy rule sets limits that are explicit for the persons that are in a position to access the protected heath information for patients without the consent of the patients (McWay, 2010).…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Medical Records” HCA 322 Health Care Ethics & Medical Law 06/11/2013 “Medical Records” 1 Some of the laws that bind the professional that works with medical records are the maintaining of patient medical information such as doctors’ orders, test results, x-rays, the prescriptions of different medications etc. Medical records must be precise, complete, and protected by a health care provider so that the Patient’s sensitive and personal information cannot be accessed by any third party. Medical records are kept by law for 7 years, and must be disposed of by a paper…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hcs 320 Hipaa Tutorial

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages

    HIPAA is important to understand so that health care employees can help safeguard patient information so it is less accessible by hackers or by people not authorized to view patient information.…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. HIPAA does not affect a patient 's access to his own medical records; it affects everyone else 's access to a patient 's medical records. You have the right to access all your records including your paper work, discussions with your physicians, anything related to your medical treatment. You can be charged a fee for the records. Fee may vary depending on the physician.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are so many issues with HIPAA compliance today. Some may not seem to understand how threatening and dangerous it can be. Even visit the doctor now contains a page where you sign that acknowledge that the physician's office has notified you about their compliance with HIPAA laws. Even to my job, whenever we got new patients there are so many paper works that contain HIPAA instructions and violations. More often, patients read through quickly or barely skim the authorization form, sign it and just hand everything back to us. At the same time, they do understand the what is HIPAA violation and how important it is. When we do think about guideline and protocol it is a very important rule for patients, healthcare facilities and hospitals.…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays