1. How does HIPPA serve to protect patient rights? A patient’s health information can be shared with doctors and hospitals for treatment and care. The information can also be shared with family members who the patient has given permission to access the patient’s records. HIPPA’s guidelines make clear exactly what information about patients is protected. Called PHI, this information includes anything that would identify a patient, from name, Social Security numbers and addresses to broader identifiers like race, age and home state. Information about the person’s health care needs or medical history is also considered PHI.…
HIPAA allows patients’ health information to be disclosed under some circumstances, such as 1) to meet law requirements; 2) for reporting of abuse, neglect, and domestic violence; 3) for monitoring of healthcare operations; 4) to be presented as evidence in legal proceedings; 5) for assistance with police investigation; 6) for medical examinations and funerals; 7) for organ donation; 8) for research; 9) to avoid a significant threat to health or safety; 10) for workers’ compensation payments; 11) to execute government…
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), became law in 1996. It requires health care providers, insurance companies and others involved in health care transactions to provide security on any system containing personal health information, store and transmit that information according to standardized rules, and place an automatic audit on files to help keep track of who should have access to them and whether those access rules have been violated. HIPAA complaints and violations that aren't fixed quickly are subject to a fine of between $100 per incident or a maximum of $25,000 per year for violation of a specific rule.…
The HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules benefit and support the integrity of the healthcare industry, patients, and physicians by supplying the patient with the Notice of Privacy Practices before care is administered. It gives the patient all the pertinent information on how the information in their medical records will be used and shared along with the rights they have to the record. If there are any questions or if the patient feels like the confidentiality of their protected health information has been breached; there is a number contained in the notice for the patient to pose a formal complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Also, by allowing patient access to their medical records to confirm the accuracy of the record and revise…
The HIPAA tutorial was very educational and informative. I learned many things from this tutorial; however, I found the online information the most fascinating. Personally, I started in healthcare soon before we had EMR’s (electronic medical records) or as HIPPA calls them, EHR’s (electronic health records). A majority of us feel that our health information is personal as well as private and should be protected. The federal government put in position the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to ensure you have rights over your…
What does HIPAA stand for, what does it mean? And why is it so important? HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This law helps maintain privacy of health information, which prevents improper use of ones medical records. If you work in a hospital or clinic, every employee receives a thick packet on HIPAA. If you’re like me, you might skim through it on a thirty minute break and not pay it any mind. (It’s the truth). Because of not reading that packet, I never understood what it was about or its importance. After absorbing Henrietta’s story, thank goodness this Act was approved when it was, which was1996. The article HIPAA Fine Is First displayed the consequences by not practicing this Act. In Zigmonds article June of this year 2011, Cignet Health Center refused 41 patients of obtaining any medical records, even upon request. HIPAA states records are to be given to a patient no later than 60 days. For not doing so, Health and Human services (HHS) fined the company with 4.3 million dollars. 1.3 million by not following HIPAA and 3 million for not cooperating with HHS. If this Act was approved over fifty years ago, Henrietta would not be known worldwide due to medical classification,…
Training sessions will be organized for all employees at least once a year to refresh their knowledge of privacy and security in compliance to with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules. HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule set a national standard for the security and privacy of electronic protected health information; and the confidentiality provisions of the Patient Safety Rule. The US Department of Health and Human Services (2010) stated, “the Rule requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of personal health information, and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without patient authorization” (¶…
Providers must inform patients of their HIPAA privacy and…
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was created to develop regulations to protect the privacy and security of certain health information; which shouldn’t be accessible to individuals without the need to know. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for HIPAA compliance within the Privacy Rule as well as the Security Rule. This Privacy Rule develops national standards for protecting certain health information while the Security Rule establishes a national set of security standards for protecting specific health information that is held or transferred in electronic form.…
Patient care has been vulnerable by HIPAA; healthcare providers cannot easily share patient’s information. Each patient or power of attorney must give implied permission for a healthcare provider to share any personal information. Deprived of not being able to share patient information between providers, it takes longer time to get critical information that can affect patient care. Healthcare organizations faces supplementary legal costs if they violate HIPAA privacy provisions. These costs make many organizations careful of sharing a patient information, even if the patient has given permission for information sharing, so that’s why everything has to be documented, initial, and signed.…
Prior to the enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) health information was able to be shared without the knowledge or permission of the patient. This information was available to just about anyone including insurance agencies, places of employment and even loan lenders. People would potentially use individuals’ health information to deny them work or a loan for their home and even impacting higher insurance rates or denial of coverage. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (n.d.), “The Privacy Rule establishes a Federal floor of safeguards to protect the confidentiality of medical information. State laws which provide stronger privacy protections will continue to apply over and above the new Federal privacy standards.” (para. 1). Also, as medical records continue to move entirely to the new standard of electronic records it is important to have one standard across the country to protect everyone’s information. Electronic health records (EHR) make it easier than ever to accidentally share medical information, to include having it stolen. Medical providers are just as likely to face consequence if their facility is broken in to and the hard drive with patients information is stolen as they would be if they gave the information away themselves. In general HIPPA protects patients’ information as well as their right to be treated equally.…
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 1996, which was originally proposed to assure health insurance coverage after leaving a job. Congress felt the need to add a section to the bill in order to save money; therefore, the Administration Simplification section was included in the bill. The health care industry was in agreeance with the ideas of Congress because standard record formats, code sets, and identifiers in standardized electronic transactions were required. The official bill was passed August 21, 1996. There are two main focuses of HIPAA, which are the privacy and security of the patient’s health information and the covered entities. Being that Congress didn’t provide legislation defining the privacy and security…
People can receive handouts regarding information about HIPAA, as well as on the internet. There are plenty of online websites that one can go to in order to receive any information they are in search of. Breaking the law can have some major consequences so it is important to understand these laws to their fullest. A good way to avoid this from happening is when you have your patients sign any paper work and they initial anything that has to do with privacy acts, such as HIPPA, be sure to provide them with any packets you may have even if they do not ask for one. Many people tend to just initial everything without even reading what it…
This paper will present the basic principles of HIPAA and when who and how it’s education should be shared with health care workers. Employees should only have such patient health records as their job responsibilities requires and I will explain in my report why it is important to only be on the need to know basic. I will also show an outline of what’s important in knowing HIPAA rules and regulations when you are interviewing and or being hired for a position in the healthcare profession. There are consequences of violation of the HIPAA and federal laws that…
In helping to protecting the patients HIPAA laws keep their records confidential. There are several rules that must be followed. This means the physician or entity is not allowed to disclose any information pertaining to the patient as far as but not limited to what condition they have had in the past, what conditions they may be going through currently, what the family history is, and their demographics. When speaking of demographics this includes everything the persons’ name, date of birth, phone number, age, or even their address. An example of HIPAA being broken would be a patient receiving another patients’ envelope with test results.…