Civil Money Penalty For Hipaa Privacy Rule Violations Essay

US Congress created the Hipaa bill in 1996 because of public concern of how their private information was being used. It is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which Congress created to protect confidentiality, privacy and security of patient information. It was also for health care documents to be passed electronically. Hipaa is a privacy rule, which gives patients control over their health information. Patients have to give permission any healthcare provider can disclose any information placed in the individual’s medical records. It helps limit protected health information (PHI) to minimize the chance of inappropriate disclosure. It establishes national-level standards that healthcare providers must comply with and strictly investigates compliance related issues while holding violators to civil or criminal penalties if they violate the privacy of a person’s PHI. Hipaa also has boundaries for using and disclosing health records by covered entities; a healthcare provider, health plan, and healthcare clearinghouse. It also supports the cause of disclosing PHI without a person’s consent for individual healthcare needs, public benefit and national interests. The portability part of Hipaa guarantees patients health insurance to employees after losing a job, making sure health insurance providers can’t discriminate against people because of health status or pre-existing condition, and keeps their files safe while being sent electronically. The Privacy

This paper will examine the privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996

When confidential patient information is disclosed without consent it is a violation of the HIPAA Title II Security Rule. This rule was enacted in response to private information being leaked to the news and emails containing privileged information were read by unauthorized people. Identity theft is a real concern so patient privacy should be taken seriously. This is a rule can easily be broken without the

In the health care business, there are certain standards and laws that have been put in place to protect our patients and their personal health information. When a health care facility fails to protect their patient’s confidential information, the US Government may get involved and facilities may be forced to pay huge sums of money in fines, and risk damaging their reputation.

Healthcare technology has grown and evolved over time. With the conversion to electronic medical records and the creation of social media just to name a few, ensuring patient privacy is of the utmost importance for healthcare facilities in this day and age. In order for an organization to avoid hefty fines, it is imperative that a healthcare administrator maintains compliance with the standards and regulations associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This paper will provide a summary

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set of national standards created for the protection of health information; it is also known as a “Privacy Rule”. This rule was employed in 1996 by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to address the use and disclosure of an individual’s health information as well as the standards for the individual’s privacy rights to understand and control the manner in which their information is used.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is a statute endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1996. It offers protections for many American workers which improves portability and continuity of health insurance coverage. The seven titles of the final law are Title I - Health care Access , Portability, Title II - Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse; administrative simplification; Medical Liability Reform; Title III – Tax-related Health Provisions; Title IV – Application and

When the referring PCP or specialist office faxes the patient’s medical records, one patient’s paper medical records can unintentionally become attached to another patient’s medical records, which is an example of a HIPAA violation of unwilling negligence (Iron Mountain, 2015). This can occur when several patients are referred to a specialist at the same time, and medical records for all patients are received through one fax transmission, requiring careful examination and separation of health records. To prevent paper medical records of one patient inadvertently becoming attached to the medical records of another patient when received by fax, all pages of the health record must be reviewed upon receipt and checked for the patient’s identification

During this research, there has been a collection of data that had been connected to the instances of HIPAA violations within the United States. There are various cases that have been reported through patients and employees where very personal medical information has been exposed unlawfully for personal gain. These cases have not only put a company at reputational risk. But these cases can also place a patient and or healthcare company in a terrible financial stipulation. This thesis will include a series of charts and tables that describe the fluctuation of such cases involving different examples of HIPAA violations. Not only will there be data of these instances but there will be illustrations of how both patients and healthcare employees exemplify HIPAA violations. These cases will be verified from an external and internal evaluation. Suggestive protocol will be demonstrated to guide one along to ensure the possibility of another case of HIPAA violation is prevented. Protocols and examples are being credited by diverse information.

HIV and AIDS are two very serious diseases which first came known and reported in the U.S. in 1981. Today it is estimated that 1.7 million people in the U.S. have been infected with HIV since that date 619,000 people have already died from it. The CDC, (Center For Disease Control) estimates that every one in five people living with HIV, are unaware that they even have it. With a serious medical condition such as this, it is good that the HIPAA privacy act exists because the privacy of every patient’s medical information, including any information about AIDS and HIV, will be protected and is to

Individuals that believe that their privacy or someone else’s privacy was violated in regards to the HIPAA law can file a complaint. According the Department of Health and Human Services, the complaints will be handled by the Office of Civil Rights. According to the HHS website, a complaint can be filed in writing, either electronically or on paper by mail, fax, or email. The name of the organization and the act believed violated the privacy requirement needs to be include in the complaint (US Department of HHS). The complaint must be filed within 180 days of the believed act, and HIPAA law prohibits retaliation from an organization because someone filed a complaint. As outlined by the HHS website enforcement is made after a complaint was

In 1996, President Clinton and the US Congress passed/signed the act of HIPPA. HIPPA was enacted to maintain confidentiality of their patient’s information and to protect health insurance coverage for families and workers when they lose or change their job (portability). HIPPA set standards to respect the individual’s rights by exercising such procedures, authorizing and disclosing information. This means that anybody that works at a daily clinical or administrative job should never under any circumstances speak about the patients. If HIPAA violations are violated, this can greatly impact the person working in the medical field. Not only are violations expensive, but the penalties for noncompliance is based on the level of negligence. Criminal

HIPAA complaint procedures protect the rights of all persons and their right to privacy. As technology continues to advance, the need for more stringent and relevant regulations has grown. The HIPAA Act, aims to provide

Ten years ago after much challenges and questionable skepticism, the HIPAA policy became effective and has been shaping healthcare one regulatory policy at a time. The evolution of the HIPAA privacy act helped establish the HIPAA Security Rule which was published in 2003 and became effective in 2005, and then eventually led to the HIPAA Enforcement Rules and the Breach Notification Rule. With it joint fortification of the 2009 HITECH Act and HIPAA’s modifications to regulations, it was released in January 2013 to the industry (American Health Information Management Association, 2013).

The Health and Human Services (HHS) settled a case with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) for $1.5 million for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and security rules. There are security issues with BCBST in regard to confidentiality, integrity, availability, and privacy. There are also security requirement by HIPAA which could have prevent the security issue if it has been enforced. There are correction actions taken by BCBST which were efficient and some may have not been adequate. There are HIPAA security requirements and safeguards organization need to implement to mitigate the security risk in terms of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.