The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Of...

HIPPA Compliance Administrators that practice in a healthcare setting are used to the turbulence and at times rapid change in healthcare. They find themselves in the private, public, or non-profit sectors of health care, managed care arrangements, integrated service networks, or community agencies. To be an effective manager, it is important to understand the legal and ethical principles that are included in this environment and the legal relationship between consumer and the organization. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, also known as HIPAA, was created to prevent the unauthorized release of patient information. The Office for Civil Rights enforces the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which protects the privacy of†¦show more content†¦Personal health information can be anything from general information such as the patient’s name, medical record number, social security number, address, or even their date of birth. Any health information pertains to the patient such as diagnosis, medical history, medications. Employees must make sure no medical paper work is visible as well as screen protectors are on all computer screens, where you may be documenting health information. It is important that all health care employees log out of a computer when they leave that station. Employees that are aware of a breach of confidently should use their change of command set up by their facility also notify their incidents or situations to their hospital’s privacy officer. To promote the proper use of health information, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH Act, was created. Prior to the HITECH Act, HIPAA violations only resulted in minimal fines. Violations would result in a $100 fine, and a covered entity could only achieve a total of $25,000 in fines in one calendar year. The HITECH Act has broken the violations down into four categories, and has distributed the fines across them based on the category of violation. The first category would be a violations that caused by someone who didn’t know they were violating HIPAA. The fines for this tier are in the range The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Of... HIPPA and Information Management Introduction The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was passed to protect patients, it offer the following benefits (a) enables the patient to find out how their health records can be used, (b) limits the release of personnel health records, (c) patients have the opportunity to receive a copy of their health records, and (d) gives the patient the authority to control if their information will be disclosed to a third party. Under HIPPA any information that can be used to identify an individual is covered under the law. HIPPA and information management allows the federal government to implement guidelines to ensure that there are standards in place during the (a)†¦show more content†¦Literature Review HIPPA and Information Management Regulatory Background HIPAA and Information Management is a set of guidelines that have been established by the Federal government to protect the privacy and security of health information. The government passed the HIPPA legislation to accomplish the following: (a) expedite quality health care, (b) increase control over and access of medical records, and (c) decrease administrative cost of healthcare providers (Artnak, Benson, 2005). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the federal agency that has been mandated to develop guidelines, and procedures. The government published the HIPPA privacy rules and the HIPPA security rules (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2008). HIPPA laws are designed to (a) protect the person’s medical records, (b) protect personal information, (c) provide protection to medical professionals, and (d) offer the capability to incorporate new technology to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care (HHS, n.d.a). As a result of the rapid change in technology there are concerns regarding how to secure and manage electronic health records. Can anyone guarantee that electronic health records will ever be 100% secure? If you think about it, when medical records were strictly maintained using paper no one could offer 100% security. The government has measures in place to keep up with the ever so changing world of information The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Of... Another important component within Healthcare information security is having the necessary legal backing to create and enforce information security laws. Without such laws, healthcare providers would not be required to show due diligence in protecting patient information, and patient information would be at risk. Thus, legislation is beginning to play a significant role in establishing rules, regulations, and consequences. For instance, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) maintains one of the most well-known laws meant to protect the privacy of health information - the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). HIPAA is composed of statute and rules such as the Privacy Rule, Security Rule, Breach Notification Rule,†¦show more content†¦For instance, while the HIPAA mandates risk assessment and risk management, it â€Å"does not mandate the frequency of reviews or updates† (Sayles Trawick, 2010, p. 304-305). Thus, lack of specifics can lead to s ome inadequacies or inconsistencies within the legal system, causing healthcare providers and/or patients to adopt information technology with reluctance. Ultimately, enforceable legislation is a significant step for obtaining a strong foundation for information security in healthcare. It is imperative that the legal system be able to dynamically and quickly adapt to the needs of the healthcare industry, in order to keep pace with information technology and the latest security threats. In addition to legal support, standards have been implemented to assist with health information security. For instance, the ISO/IEC 27002 is a standard that was created in the mid 1990’s to provide theory and recommended techniques for dealing with information security. Furthermore, the ISO 27799 supplements the ISO/IEC 27002 by providing more detailed guidance that has been customized for the healthcare industry. According to Fernà ¡ndez-Alemà ¡n, Seà ±or, Lozoya, Toval, the ISO 27799 standard â€Å"provides clear, concise and healthcare-specific guidance on the selection and implementation of security controls for the protection of health information, and is adaptable to the wide range of sizes, locations, and service delivery models found in healthcare.† Thus, it would appear that