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
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.
Hospital Employee received 18 months in jail for HIPAA Violations On February 24, 2015, 30 years old Joshua Hippler, was found guilty for convicting HIPPA Violation and has been sentenced to serve 18 months in jail. Hippler was a former employee at East Texas hospital where he was alleged to have accessed to Protected Health Information. But instead he was intentionally selling patient’s information for his own personal gain. Hippler was indicted by a federal grand jury on Mar. 26, 2014 and the case was heard by United States Magistrate Judge John D. Love on August 28, 2014.
As a result of HIPPA Privacy Rules the processes of the healthcare has changed. The HIPPA Privacy Rule may now supersede state laws. At first the Privacy Rule was only a federal floor or minimum of privacy requirements so it does not preempt or supersede, stricter state statues or other federal statues. The word stricter refers to state and federal statues that provide individuals with greater privacy protection and gives individuals greater rights with the respect to their personal health information.
HIPAA regulations state that when using or disclosing PHI (protected health information) or when requesting PHI from another covered entity (a doctor’s office, dental practice, etc), a covered entity must make reasonable efforts to limit PHI, to the minimum necessary, to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure or request. So how do we accomplish the goal of limiting our PHI access and requests to the minimum necessary level? We look at three basic areas: levels of access to PHI, requesting PHI, and sending PHI. Giving employees specific levels of access to PHI
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requires HIPAA covered entities and their business associates to provide notification following a breach of unsecured protected health information. Similar breach notification provisions implemented and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), apply to vendors of personal health records and their third party service providers, pursuant to section 13407 of the HITECH Act. . ("Privacy HHS.gov," n.d.) An example of this rule is a hospital disclosed protected health information to an employer about an employee without authorization. To correct the actions the Office for Civil Rights required the hospital to revise its procedures on patient authorization prior to release of protected health information
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: 1) Make sure Protected Health Information (PHI) is not casually observable. This means turning papers face down on your desk, not leaving charts visible on office doors, and making sure your computer screen cannot be readily seen by other people. This includes not only patients but other staff.
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.
HIPAA is legislation that is mostly used in United States for the protection and privacy of the patient’s information. The medical information is protected by HIPAA whereby it ensures safe access to health and other personal information. HIPAA is therefore divided into five rules and regulations. There is private rule which ensures that all the information about individual’s health is highly protected. Private rule allows a good flow of health care information to ensure that an individual gets the best quality health care.
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).
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
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. Security Safeguards. The Security Rule of HIPAA provides a highly detailed series of requirements in terms of administrative, technical, procedural and physical guidelines, for securing the electronic Personal Health Information (ePHI). State Law.
The Administrative Simplification Subsection of HIPAA included four specific components. These components include two specific elements which relate directly to business associates of covered entities, the Privacy Rule and Security Rule (Gartee, 2011). The Privacy Rule required that covered entities obtain from their business associates assurance that they will not disclose protected health information for reasons other than those designed to ensure that the covered entities practices are maintained or improved upon (“Business Associates”, n.d.). The Security Rule of the subsection outlines that covered entities must have in place “physical safeguards” which include physical security measures related to information storage and exchanges as
Across America there are millions of individuals that received healthcare coverage. Almost all of the fifty states have passed consumer and patient protection laws and regulations and the details to how these laws are stated vary considerably such as with New York and Florida. It is important that patients medical and health information be protected by these laws and regulations as well as consumers to insure patients rights are not violated and patient care within the scope of these laws and regulations. New York and Florida laws and regulations regarding patients and consumers have similarities and differences and both must follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountable Act (HIPAA) privacy rules, which is a federal law and is part of each states laws and regulations (Managed Care State Laws and Regulations, Including Consumer and Provider Protections. 2010, May).
Since the majority of healthcare providers fall under the heading of being a covered entity, and therefore must adhere to HIPAA regulations regarding Protected Health Information and individually identifiable health information. This means they are required to have measures in place to provide security for that information in their possession, whether it is stored in paper charts or in their facility’s computers. Every healthcare facility must have a person that is the designated Privacy Compliance Officer. Even if it is only two people employed, one of them will need to be the Privacy Compliance Office. It is that important of a position.