In 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Health care Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPPA history,”n.d). This particular act is better known as HIPAA. The purpose of HIPAA was not solely to enhance answerability and to speed up operations concerning “health insurance coverage,” but its purpose was to also establish clear and strict guidelines to decrease possible misuse of how health is either insured or delivered (“HIPAA history,” n.d). HIPAA also serves more than just a “privacy act.” This act serves as protection for employees and their dependents in the event that the covered individual loses his/her coverage (USDL, n.d.). HIPAA’s existence constituted as a necessary health care reform. This particular healthcare reform empowered patients by giving them more control and say over the handling of medical records. The HIPAA law also reshaped how health care providers handled patients’ medical records, especially concerning patient privacy (IHS, n.d.). Under the HIPAA law, the privacy rule includes the “national standards” that health care organizations must …show more content…
This law is not limited to hospitals, but also includes facilities such as skilled nursing homes, psychiatric care, and social workers as well (“Obtaining your medical records,” n.d.) However, the HIPAA law does include a few provisions that may highlight certain limitations on our patient rights and our organization. I will explore the different provisions in order to determine we comply with the law. The next portion will include the level of access our patient has over his medical records including psychiatric records as
With privacy being of the utmost importance within a medical practice, HIPAA compliance can be a significant legal issue when implementing the AHSI Project into production. HIPAA compliance is a very important legal issue that should be reviewed by the legal team on any project. Encryption is also important as a legal issue, if the software is not encrypted and patient information is not protected, it can be a HIPAA violation as privacy is. Trust as a legal issue involves HIPAA compliance as well as trust in the legal system that CareMount Medical
You are correct Vaschar, the HIPAA privacy rule does play a big part in the role of keeping patient information secure. In the instance when a patients information is given to a fellow medical provider for continuity of care to establish a consult appointment is not an issue, but should that patients medical records need to be released between the medical provider and the other provider of care a medical records release authorization should be signed by either the patient or the patients representative. In the case where a medical provider wishes to distribute a product for another company it can do so without any HIPAA violation just as long as it does not pass on any patient demographic or patient care information to the company. If
When examining the case of the State of California against Dr Zhou, we can clearly conclude that the HIPAA law of which was convicted of violated is not just words written on paper to buy patients' confidence, it is meaningful law set in place to protect patient privacy and any ones violating this law, regardless of your position in the health care field can be persecuted punished for violating the law, even in the absence damages evidence resulting from the violation of the law. The purpose of this post is to discuss the case of the State of California against the physician, Dr Huping Zhou, in this post I will review the HIPAA law, penalties for violation of the law and why I felt that Doctor Zhou was very fortunate for his punishments four
The purpose of the HIPAA transactions and code set standards is to simplify the processes and decrease the costs associated with payment for health care services. The transactions and code set standards apply to patient-identifiable health information transmitted electronically. Physician practices will continue to be able to submit paper claims. When the regulations take effect in October 2002, standard formats and code sets will take the place of any payer-specific or location-specific formats or requirements. ICD-9-CM Volume 1 and 2: Diagnosis Coding - ICD-9-CM is used to code and classify morbidity data from the inpatient and outpatient records, physician offices, and most National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) surveys.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act also known as HIPAA has set a national standard for the handling of electronically stored medical records. Medical confidentiality protects conversations between a patient and his or her doctor from being used against the patient in court. It is a part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions. The penalties for violating HIPPA are based on the level of negligence and can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation or per record, with a maximum of $1.5 million per year. Violations can also carry criminal charges that can result in jail time.
The act is meant to followed by the rules, but the state can change certain thing according to the way it believes HIPAA should be done. If someone were to commit theft, he or she would have to pay thousand in fines and be sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. The hospitals and medical institutes must call, mail, email, or use the media to inform the victims that his or her information is a risk. They will have up to 30 days to contact everyone involved or an additional 30 if he or she is having trouble finding a large number of people or if the police have to become part of the solution.
The first article was a summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In the article, there was an introduction on what HIPAA meant and its importance. First off, HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and it is a disclosure of patient information so that it is protected from unknown individuals and to assure that health providers abide by the privacy rule. Some key facts about HIPAA were, who was covered, what information is protected, and administrative requirements. Noncompliance and criminal penalties were some of the critical issues found in the article.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a vital part of the health care industry’s day to day business. HIPAAs procedures define how healthcare companies receive and handle their clients’ health care information. HIPAA helps to protect the patient’s personal information through confidentiality and security procedures while being transferred, handled or shared with other healthcare providers (Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules, 2013). When a patient’s privacy is not regulated, third parties could buy and sell the information without the patients’ authorization. With HIPAA being in place, it prevents healthcare employees from divulging any patient information they
Healthcare providers and organizations are obligated and bound to protect patient confidentiality by laws and regulations. Patient information may only be disclosed to those directly involved in the patient’s care or those the patient identifies as able to receive the information. The HIPAA Act of 1996 is the federal law mandating healthcare organizations and clinicians to safeguard patient’s medical information. This law corresponds with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act to include security standards for protecting electronic health information. The healthcare organization is legally responsible for establishing procedures to prevent data
HIPAA is an acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It is the United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. Important things to know about HIPAA are the basics of it, the obligations of an organization under it, and key provisions of it. You must also be informed about healthcare professionals’ responsibilities under HIPAA and penalties for non-compliance.
The HIPAA rule is built to protect and prevent disclosing individuals’, and consumers’ identifiable health care information unlawfully and without getting authority from the concern parties. If someone break the law, individuals are subject to civil penalties of $100 on each violation but the penalty can accumulates based on numbers of violations; the standard maximum limit of civil penalties is $25,000 each person, each year (HIPAA Privacy Rule – What Employers Need to Know, n. d.). As per stacking rules, if a person violated two HIPAA standards, the penalty can be $50,000; Similarly, the criminal penalties subject to maximum of $ 250,000 and ten years in prison can be imposed to those individuals and parties who disclosed protected information
Nurses and doctors take the oath to protect the privacy and the confidentiality of patients. Patients and their medical conditions should not be discussed with anyone who is not treating the patient. Electronic health records are held to the same standards as nurses in that information is to be kept between, and shared only with the immediate care team. HIPAA violations are not taken lightly nor are the violation fines cheap. Depending on the violation, a hospital can be fined from $100 to $50,000 per violation (National Nurse 2011 p 23).
Regulations and Implementations The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is legislation passed in 1996 that safeguards the rights of employees and their families as it relates to their health insurance coverage whenever they transition or lose employment (Health IT.gov, 2016). The law required national guidelines and standards be developed concerning electronic health care exchanges as well as identifiers being assigned to providers, health insurance benefits, and employers to be recognized nationally (Health IT.gov, 2016). The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was implemented in 2009 granting Health and Human Services (HHS) the control over creating programs to enhance efficacy, safety, and overall quality of health care via health information technology (IT) with a focus on privacy and security during electronic health data interfacing (Health IT. gov, 2016).
As records were shared electronically rules were implemented for clinicians to follow known as The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule ,2013). These rules were implemented for clinicians to protect the
The goals of HIPAA are to ensure medical coverage scope for workers and their families when they change or lose their employments and to secure wellbeing information trustworthiness, classification, and accessibility. The objectives are also to enhance our health care framework by making it more proficient, less difficult, and less