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The Importance Of HIPAA Violation

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HIPAA Violation rocks hospital! An employee at St. Charles Health system accessed over 2400 patients’ medical records over a two-year period because they were curious. We all know that curiosity killed the cat and now it may have direr consequences for this curiosity seeker and the hospital system. HIPAA Violation without intent to commit fraud
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 …show more content…

Just remember this incident when you want to be inquisitive about a patient that you are not treating or accessing a patient’s medical records for no business purpose.
When performing your job function, it is not a HIPAA violation if you release and/or access a patient’s PHI for treatment, payment or health operations (TPO). When accessing and/or releasing a patient’s PHI, ask yourself does this fall under the TPO exceptions? If it does, then you should just release the minimum information necessary to complete the task and if it does not, then you may need an authorization signed by the patient or his/her representative. In the event you are unsure if you can release and/or access a patient’s PHI, contact your supervisor or your organization’s Privacy Officer.
Finally, this violation reaffirms the need to conduct a HIPAA Risk Analyses, including monitoring the privacy/breach rule. Use your policies and procedures for efficient and effective training, auditing and

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When examining the case of the State of California against Dr Zhou, we can clearly conclude that the HIPAA law of which was convicted of violated is not just words written on paper to buy patients' confidence, it is meaningful law set in place to protect patient privacy and any ones 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, penalties for violation of the law and why I felt that Doctor Zhou was very fortunate for his punishments four

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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.

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I agree with you, Dr. Zhou should have clear understanding of the HIPAA law, that is part of orientation practice for everyone who has access to patient information in the health care field. For Dr. Zhou to access the patient electronic records after his termination is very alarming. Everyone agrees that his plea deal of $2000 of fine and four months in prison was a lesser punishment than what he deserves. According the HIPAA law he could spent more than 10 years in prison for his action .What is your thoughts. Don’t you think UCLA should have been liable for failing to protect the patient information.

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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.

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The providers can make information available to those individuals or inform them that the information does not exist and refer them to other providers who maintain their records, if known. In case the information is being used, the providers have to response with a reason for the delay of handling the request and have the information ready no later than 21 days. The provider can also deny the request following Montana Code 50-16-542 (Montana Legislative Services, 2015). In same meaning, under HIPAA rule 45 CFR 164.524(b)(2), providers have an obligation to provide access to PHI within 30 days upon receiving the individuals’ requests. However, providers are expected to response to the request immediately.

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HIPAA also aims to decrease health care spending by lowering fraud and corruption which involves President Clinton’s 1993 health program’s projected criminal and civil punishments against doctors and other clinicians. Being a federal health fraud act, HIPAA tightened punishments, increased financial allocations dedicated to fraud prevention, and prompted an exceptional amount of authority movements. Furthermore, for health programs of the federal government, HIPAA used the warning of the worst punishments to turn billing arguments into a criminal offense and restrain reduction of cost thereafter, rather than enhancing the advance payment requests auditing process. Also, HIPAA was enacted with the assurance that it would decrease the employee’s

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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).

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New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center finally agreed in 2014 to pay a settlement of $4.8 million dollars for HIPPA violations that happened in 2010 (McCann, 2014, para. 2). The violation involved patients’ electronic health records data being found on Google. According to McCann (2014), “the HIPPA breach transpired when a CU physician, who developed applications for NYP and CU, attempted to deactivate a personally-owned computer server on the network containing ePHI’ (para. 3). Because the hospital lacked technical safeguards, the patients’ electronic health records were be able to be accessed once server was deactivated. Because the institutions were fined a record setting of $4.8 million dollars,

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Unfortunately HIPAA violations happen every year in our country. In fact, a situation happened in a New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center on May 7th 2010. The HIPAA violation happened after the electronic health records of 6,800 patients ended up on Google for the world to see. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who are responsible for HIPAA enforcement laws deeply investigated this case. It was discovered that a Columbia University physician who developed applications for New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University, attempted to deactivate a personally owned computer server on the network containing electronic protected health information (ePHI).

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The primary goal of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is to make it easier for people to keep health insurance, protect the confidentiality and security of health care information and help the health care industry control administrative costs. HIPAA is divided into different titles or sections that address a unique aspect of health insurance reform. Two main sections are Title I dealing with Portability and Title II that focuses on Administrative Simplification. Title I allows individuals to carry their health insurance from one job to another so that they do not have a lapse in coverage. It also restricts health plans from requiring preexisting conditions on individuals who switch from one health plan to another.

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Sometimes the Nurses get busy and forget to log off the computer leaving information expose for family members to see . This can cause a problem in violating the HIPPA ACT. At the Hospital that I work at when the nurse leaves the computer expose this situation is always address. And at every meeting we always discuss the importance of HIPPA . As a nurse we know that families and patient like to keep their medical history private .

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