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. HIPAA’s purpose, Is to protect the privacy of health information concerning a client or an employee. Violations of this law may include disciplinary actions, criminal penalties and fines, and possibly imprisonment. To conduct this investigation, the first step I would need to take is to find out whether HIPAA trainings were conducted though all the staff members at this hospital. Many people violate HIPAA laws without even being aware that they are in contravention. Ultimately, it is the hospital’s responsibility to ensure that their staff members are trained on these laws to ensure compliance, and reduce violations. Although the lack of awareness of HIPAA violation laws is not an excuse, this is also a matter to be taken into consideration before concluding my final decision. The second requirement I would …show more content…
When a patient enters a hospital, he/she usually places a high level of trust within that nurse/doctor. Trust, is very essential in all forms of health care. Business wise, it becomes influential and encourages the use of the health care facility and services which is very beneficial and effective to the health system. When that trust is violated, patients tend to find alternative methods of care or professionals. Ultimately, violations of the HIPAA law should not be made. Health care professionals need to maintain a high degree of professionalism, while possessing the upmost degree of integrity. A patient needs to feel confident and safe at all
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
Privacy rule establishes national standards to protect ones medical records and other personal information. The case I decided to research was ‘Prison Term in HIPAA Violation Case’. This case is about a gentleman that was pulled over and was found to be in possession with a patients record. He was working at hospital n East Texas when this case took place on August 28, 2014.
When examining the case of the State of California against Dr Huping Zhou, we can conclude that the HIPAA law is a meaningful law set in place to protect patients’ privacy, and any one 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, the penalties for violation of the law and why I feel that Doctor Zhou was very fortunate to receve the punishments four months in prison and just $2000 in fine. As a physician, a researcher of UCLA School
The walls in the office of healthcare providers are made sound proof by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). Sound proof meaning that each patient’s healthcare information can only be shared between the provider and the patient; their information is required to remain confidential by law. In 1996, HIPPA was passed by congress; the act included regulations that would help to protect patient privacy and health information (Petersen, 2001). After reading the novel, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot one may be appalled and think that what occurs in the novel is a complete violation of HIPPA. But, the time frame needs to be taken into consideration.
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.
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
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 a patient you know the rules but as a Medical Assistant or anything related to the medical field you should be more than experienced with what you can or cannot do related to the patient rights, privacy and obviously HIPPA rules. “The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care
1. 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) a. Explain how HIPAA was violated
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
Every organization is at risk for breach, but the difference between entities will be reflected in how they implement policies, procedures and corrective actions. For example, changes to the HIPAA rules regarding the accounting of health information disclosures expected this year have the potential to dramatically expand HIM and release of information (ROI) responsibilities and pose operational challenges. Every step within the release of information should be addressed through training, with these particular areas: front desk personnel, document identification and the pre-shipment validation. Finally, just prior to submission to the requester, release of information staff should always validate that only the uniquely authorized information has been included an that the information imported into the release of information process for disclosure belongs exclusively to that patient. If this is the case, the the release of information staff must implement and perform quality control measures to validate that another patient's information was not inadvertently imaged or indexed to the original patient's
The facilities enforcing protocols and policies to secure that employees are meeting government regulations. Doctors, nursing staff and support staff I must use their best ethical and moral judge in most case to ensure patients are being retreated. Thus, sometimes causing conflict with health care administration because health care workers sometimes unknowingly break policies or protocol by putting patients first. As well as hospitals and clinics have so many departments that there can be conflict of interest with patient care that can cause inconsistency with patient care (Santilli, J. el al., 2015, Para