It is worth to mention that HIPAA system breached because of some weakness which create a chance to breach it, such weakness according to Blumenthal (2007, p.2) represented with the following:
HIPAA is the law that must be followed by all healthcare personnel at every level, both professional and non-professional. Any companies that provide services to healthcare providers must follow HIPAA. HIPAA is a set of basic national privacy standards and information practices. The purpose of it is to protect the privacy of all patients and residents of the United States who receive any kind of healthcare services. Patients can enjoy protection and peace about their healthcare information due to HIPAA (Rorer ). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act provides standardized patients health, administrative, and financial information, and provides protection and security of confidential patient health information. It protects medical
The new HIPAA regulations also require each covered entity to take action to cure a breach or end a HIPAA violation by its business associate if the covered entity knows of a pattern or practice of its business associate that violates HIPAA. Covered entities will need to take a more active role in monitoring the activities of their business associates to cure breaches and end HIPAA
Unfortunately HIPAA violations happen every year in our country. In fact, a situation happened in a New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center on May 7th 2010. The HIPAA violation happened after the electronic health records of 6,800 patients ended up on Google for the world to see. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who are responsible for HIPAA enforcement laws deeply investigated this case. It was discovered that a Columbia University physician who developed applications for New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University, attempted to deactivate a personally owned computer server on the network containing electronic protected health information (ePHI). Due to lack of technical
When entering a patient 's room, remember to close the door behind. If the door is left open, people walking by the room could possibly over hear the conversation. This could lead to a potential violation of HIPAA.
I agree with you, Dr. Zhou should have clear understanding of the HIPAA law, that is part of orientation practice for everyone who has access to patient information in the health care field. For Dr. Zhou to access the patient electronic records after his termination is very alarming. Everyone agrees that his plea deal of $2000 of fine and four months in prison was a lesser punishment than what he deserves. According the HIPAA law he could spent more than 10 years in prison for his action .What is your thoughts. Don’t you think UCLA should have been liable for failing to protect the patient information. While we can be pleased with many benefits that the electronic charting system and patient records keeping system have to offer, don’t you
If you work in healthcare, anywhere from a small medical office to a big hospital to an insurance company, you need to be in compliance with HIPAA. This is a long, complicated document and even big insurance companies struggle to keep the rules fresh in everyone 's mind and everyone on top of the most critical functions. Here are a few things to make sure you are doing right:
Since HIPAA become mandatory on most of the health care organization, patient information is more secure compared to previous. Health care organization are investing huge amount of fund for safety measures to protect the patient information and i think this is the main concern in today's advanced health care
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets security standards for safeguarding important patient health information that is being stored and maintained in analog and digital forms. As new technologies continue to facilitate the healthcare industry’s transition to paperless processes, health care providers, insurance companies, and other institutions are also growing increasingly dependent on electronic information systems to manage their HIPAA compliance programs. As a result, the safety and security of sensitive health data has become a major concern across the board.
She was a respiratory therapist who worked at a 72-bed hospital in Oregon; Ohio called ProMedica Bay Park Hospital. She “was authorized to access individually identifiable health information and protected health information of certain respiratory patients,” not of other hospital patients (McGee, 2015). She had accessed practically 600 patients protected heath information (PHI), but it topped out at 596 patients. During May of 2014, “ProMedica began notifying the affected patients that their records were inappropriately accessed between April 1, 2013, and April 1, 2014,” many of whom were frightened and had felt uneasy thereafter (McGee, 2015). The situation was made aware to U.S Department of Health and Human Services, who has since then posted her case onto their “Wall of Shame.” All healthcare professionals, whether it is the receptionists all the way up to the owner of the hospital, are going to have heard about HIPAA at some point in their employment. The punishment is pretty hefty, so that is probably why there are only a couple of cases with violations of HIPAA resulting in criminal severities. The legalities of breaching PHI “to a third party carries a jail term of up to 10 years in addition to a maximum fine of $500,000 if the disclosure is made
There is a controversial issue in regards to the violation of the HIPAA privacy rule concerning a client who was received at a small town hospital emergency rule. As a privacy officer, this issue has been bought to my attention. HIPPA violations are serious offenses, and ultimately, it is my responsibility to take corrective actions to resolve this matter upon this investigation.
In 2009, the Congress created an act called Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It is designed when people became concern about his or her personal information being stolen. With the media growing every day, it has become easier for people to hack into computer take identities and putting others at risk. The federal government made HIPAA way to reduce company’s downfalls and financial crisis due to theft. Medical facilities improved responsibility when it came to their client’s medical history.
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
Put in place in 2003, it was designed to protect patient privacy, informed consent, and how records can be stored and used. Although this law was created with good intentions, it has many negative effects. These negative effects were summarized in the documentary by Dr. Pomeranz, "HIPPA is trying to guarantee patient safety, but in doing so, they're killing the team and killing the relationship" (McGarry, 2013). As discussed in class, HIPPA limits communication that may save lives, and this limitation on communication is what Dr. Pomeranz is indicating as killing the team. Since violating HIPPA is a criminal offense and the rules of the law are too confusing, organizations tend to lean toward the side of caution and limit communication. This limit on communication slows research, workflow, and efficiency. Dr. Deeb Salem shared an example about a patient who underwent a cardiac transplantation and two days later the care team was informed that the donors blood revealed bacteremia. The doctors contacted the hospital who had cared for the, now-deceased, donor in an attempt to confirm the identity of bacterium so that proper antibiotics could be used. Although time was crucial for the recipient, the donor's hospital stated that providing such information would violate HIPAA, since the hospital did not have authorization from the donor (Salem, 2003). Confronting the issues with HIPPA is necessary in order to avoid situations as such and increase overall communication between medical
Technology has become an essential part of our everyday life therefore, it makes sense that doctors and hospitals get rid of the old fashioned paper charting and use technology to access patient records. Electronic health records (EHR) provide quick access to information, as doctors no longer have to wait for other providers to fax previous records to them. The accessibility of Electronic Health Records assist medical providers to make quick medical care decisions, by accessing previous care provided to patients including treatment and diagnosis. Quick access to information through EHR enables health care providers to treat patients faster as there is no need for records to be mailed or