HIPAA And Privacy Essay

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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was created to give the employer a limit to denying health insurance coverage to their employees when medical conditions are present (Flores, 2005, p. 1). The privacy rule, a rule that was developed to create a safe environment where confidential information is kept from sharing to irrelevant individuals, was also added to HIPAA by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officially naming it the HIPAA privacy rule. It was produced to protect important health information and how much of the information was required from patient treatments (Wimberley et al., 2005, p. 489). The individuals in the medical field that commit violations where confidential information …show more content…

According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), they committed about six years to developing and creating the guidelines to cover the concepts in clear and detailed rules which made it 1,500 pages long (McDonald, 2009, p. 447). Not only that, but in D. S. Friedman’s own research, he points out that taking a test to review the regulations to the HIPAA privacy rule is expensive. It requires about 26,000 faculty to get together and $2 million to be spent annually to create and pass a test over the understanding of the guidelines to the privacy rule (2006, p. 546). The HIPAA privacy rule also builds confusion and this affects the studies and projects that need to be made.
The nurses and faculty that violate the privacy rule will face severe consequences such as civil and criminal penalties. For example, when violations occur, $100 to $25,000 per year will need to be paid off depending on the situation. Not only that, but going to prison can also be added depending on what and how the information was released (Wimberley et al., 2005, 489). Taking the time to correctly deliver the process of not releasing confidential information is needed, so there wouldn’t be any consequences or violations to the privacy