HIPAA Research Papers

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Keep Protected Health Information Your Top Priority Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or what is more known as HIPAA is a law enacted in 1996 to improve the competence and value of electronic information transfers used in the delivery, administration, and financing of the health care in the U. S. This law affects any persons involved in the medical field, and holds them accountable to strict rules when dealing with PHI. According to National Academic Press, the overall purpose of this law is to protect health information, ensure confidentiality and accuracy, establish use and disclosure procedures, ensure proper handling of data, and implement audits (2009). Privacy and Security laws are regulated under HIPAA.…show more content…
It’s clear that we need to protect and keep any and all private information as privileged (Marshall, J., 2004). Privileged information can sometimes come out at the most in unsuspected ways. A nurse is going over a patient’s last visit with them in the room next door to yours; now there are no doors to shut only curtains for privacy when you overhear that the results of their HIV test was positive. Now, would you say that this was a breach of the HIPAA law? The answer would be yes, being that you are aware of your surroundings and how your office is set up, one must know how to be more discrete than to speak so loudly. Now it wasn’t intentional but the nurse did break the law and she may find herself and her company under lengthy litigations. Sometimes breaking this law is inevitable but someone must be accountable for these types of mistakes. Medical professionals are "bound both legally and ethically as employees to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patient-physician interactions" (2004, p.…show more content…
We can often times get busy at the desk with folders piling up but you must come up with some sort of system that maybe every 3-5 files you stop and put them away, when you have that patient whom you are speaking with speaking more closely to them and maybe at a lower tone than normal to keep others from overhearing. All monitors should be turned away from all patients at all times, any files that the patient asks for must be given to them, patients have rights to their medical records at any time. If medical offices follow the HIPAA laws it could possibly minimize lawsuits. Although it may be hard at times, if we all work together to protect one another we can prevent a lot of unnecessary fines, and job losts. References Marshall, J. (2004). Being a medical clerical worker (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. (2009.) Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 4, HIPAA, the Privacy Rule, and Its Application to Health Research. Retrieved from:
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