Reference no: EM133940111

Assignment:

The Security Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This portion of the Act includes who is covered, what information is protected, and the safeguards that must be in place to warrant appropriate protection of electronically protected information. In addition, there is an office within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) called the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that is responsible for enforcing both Privacy and Security Rules of HIPAA. The penalties can be monetary or voluntary compliance activities such as keeping all patient documentation (physical charts and records) locked away and out of the public's view. The Privacy Rule is created to protect the consumer or patient by protecting their individually identifiable health information.

The Privacy rule also addresses technical and non-technical safeguards that "covered entities" or health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers who electronically transmit ANY health information must be put into place. New technology is allowing the medical workforce to be more mobile by utilizing electronic health records (EHR), radiology, pharmacy, lab systems, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and patient portals. With these new technologies, doctors can check lab results wherever they are; which allows them to be more efficient and improve the quality of patient care.

However, they also raise the potential for security risks. Furthermore, the Security Rule defines "confidentiality" to mean that electronically protected health information (e-PHI) is not available or disclosed to unauthorized persons. For instance, not every and any hospital staff has permission to view all patient charts although the patients are receiving care at the same facility. So healthcare workers don't have permission to look up any patients chart and medical information for the fun of it. Healthcare workers only have permission to look up and view a patient that they are providing care for. The Security Rule is really strict, even if it were an accident and they accessed a patient's record that they did not provide care for or was not admitted on my floor and that access was audited they would be written up for a HIPAA violation.

What is your opinion on this response to HIPAA Security Rule and Privacy Rule? Why are these rules important? How are these rules helpful in hospitals?