How To Compliance With HIPAA

Regardless of any personal beliefs, Surgical Technologist have several professional standards to maintain when it comes to personal conduct and high patient care to uphold at all times. The entire medical team is responsible for keeping patient information confidential at all times, unless instructed not to by the patient. As part of the care team we need to respect and protect any legal, moral rights the patient may have. We must not meaningfully cause harm to those around us. These are some code of ethics that Surgical Technologist have towards patient care (Code of Ethics, 2013).

To keep a record of all healthcare that is created by a medical provider. This information is important for all providers that are involved in a patient’s care.

Health care includes preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, maintenance, or palliative care, and counseling, services, assessment, or procedure with respect to the physical or mental condition, or functional status of an individual. Health Care Clearinghouse, Businesses that process or facilitate the processing of health information received form other businesses. It includes groups such as physician and hospital billing services. Health Plans, Individuals or group plans that provide or pay the cost of medical care and includes both Medicare and Medicaid programs. HIPAA protects an individual’s health information and their demographic information. This is called protected health information or PHI. Information meets the definition of PHI if, even without the patient’s name, if you look at certain information and you can tell who the person is then it is PHI. The PHI can relate to past, present or future physical or mental health of the individual. PHI describes a disease, diagnosis, procedure, prognosis, or condition of the individual and can exist in any medium files, voice mail, email, fax, or verbal communications. defines information as protected health information if it contains the following information about the patient, the patient’s household members, or the patient’s employers, Names, Dates relating to a patient, i.e. birth dates, dates of medical treatment, admission and discharge dates, and dates of death, Telephone numbers, addresses (including city, county, or zip code) fax numbers and other contact information, Social Security numbers, Medical records numbers, Photographs, Finger and voice prints, Any other unique identifying

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.

All state and federal laws and regulations regarding the protection of private health information are currently adhered to by the North Carolina Division for Public Health (while fulfilling its Public Health mission). In addition, and as part of its ongoing compliance, the Division follows NC DHHS department-level HIPAA policies, procedures, and practices, as

Patient Rights. Enactment of HIPAA enables patients in many ways by providing them a set of rights which include a right to be notified about the privacy practices of the covered entity they are dealing with, a right over control and access of their Personal Health Information(PHI), and to take legal action against an entity on encountering any HIPAA violation without facing threats of retaliation.

HIPAA is an establishment foundation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that provides the protection of a patient’s healthcare data. HIPAA applies two requirements, which are covered entities that provided individuals treatment, payment, and operations in healthcare. Business associates provides access to the patient’s information and provides support in treatment, payment or operation as well. HIPAA privacy rule must protect health data information that is being created, received, maintain or is being transmitted electronically. Although HIPAA standards are required to provide security and protection of medical files, HIPAA privacy rule and security rule are being violated.

The employee who viewed the protected health information (PHI) without a legitimate reason to do so is in jeopardy of large civil fines, loss of their respective clinical license and criminal prosecution. Not to mention termination from their present position. The hospital system has to repair its damaged reputation while at the same time prepare to defend itself against potential civil/criminal lawsuits. There are too many incidences were an organization is liable for HIPAA

Having good medical records is very important, for the proper care of patients. “Medical records can be used to manage healthcare, track healthcare, provide clinical data, meet regulatory requirements, and document healthcare” (Allen, 2013, P. 57). Without the proper documentation there is no proof that it was ever done. The medical records provide patient information about their health history and personal habits. The patients signed consent forms, advance directive, living will, and DNR would all be found in their medical record.

I feel the same as you. I didn 't realize the impact of HIPAA violations until doing this research for the discussions board. I always knew HIPAA was serious but not to the extent of what I 'm learning. There are so many opportunities for violating HIPAA that I can 't believe more people are not impacted by this. It feels that my facility has all of the up to date technology in place but none of the workers are aware of it. I have raised a few eyebrows at work over the past few days it hops to tighten all the loopholes that I am now aware of. Hopefully my new found discussions at work will prevent many co-workers the hardships from the consequences of a HIPAA violation.

Locate an interesting article about a HIPAA violation in which a healthcare professional breached patient confidentiality. According to New York Times Article “New York –Presbyterian Hospital has agreed to pay a $2.2 million penalty to federal regulators for allowing television crews to film two patients without their consent- one which was dying, the other in significant distress. Regulators said on Thursday that the hospital allowed filming to continue even after a medical professional asked that it stop.” (Ornstein, 2016)

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-HIPAA, was introduced in Congress as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Bill and later passed in 1996. Before HIPAA, there was no federal standardization when it came to health care programs and information, and it was up to the state to create these rules and regulations. The rules and regulations were also fragmented among government agencies. Since there was no standard authority to combat against fraud and abuse in state and federal health care programs, it became a major issue that could not be ignored. For this reason, HIPAA was created with the objective to provide provisions for the prevention of fraud and abuse, and to ensure that individuals would be able to maintain their health insurance between

According to the US department of health services the most common HIPAA violation in hospitals is the impermissible uses and disclosures of protected health information. A prevalent scenario is when a health care worker accesses files of patients who are not under the worker’s care. Anyone that is not directly related to the patients’ health care or insurance is not allowed to access the patients’ health records. This can be prevented by having all employees participate in HIPPA training after a direct violation of the policy along with mandatory training before their employment. Another preventive measure is informing workers, upon employment, that electronic medical records indirectly allow for monitoring the use and misuse of patient files.

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). The person who violated HIPAA faces termination, revocation of license and/or jail time depending on the severity of the

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