HIPAA Breach

The HIPAA regulations define security as the health care providers are accountable for maintaining the confidentiality of individually identifiable health care information or the Patient Health Information(PHI). Excretion of the HIPAA Security Rule surrounds the following three vital shields for PHI in electronic form

By law, the HIPAA Privacy Rule applies only to covered entities – health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers. However, most health care providers and health plans do not carry out all of their health care activities and functions by themselves. Instead, they often use the services of a variety of other persons or businesses. The Privacy Rule allows covered providers and health plans to disclose protected health information to these “business associates” if the providers or plans obtain satisfactory assurances that the business associate will use the information only for the purposes for which it was engaged by the covered entity, will safeguard the information from misuse, and will help the covered entity comply

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 to protect employees’ health insurance coverage when they lose or change jobs. It also has provisions that ensure the privacy and confidentiality of identifiable health information. According to the HHS web page (2016), the major goal of the Privacy Rule is to assure that individuals’ health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high-quality health care, and to protect the public 's health and wellbeing.

Confidentiality is a great concern in terms of healthcare information system and the breach of its content. HIPPA have been established to protect the privacy of patient HPI yet, its becoming more questionable as to how so many claims occur and why with all the protection we speculate to have? HIPPA trainings are being held across the states for many agencies and corporations still policies and procedures are neglected and resulting in the release of sensitive information. Privacy measures witnessed like removing PHI from the heading of paper documents just in case, but that practice is just not enough.

HIPAA also educated patients on what rights they have, such as the ability to review their own medical records. By becoming educated on what records their physicians have, what their health insurance covers, and much more, patients can make better educated decisions when it comes to their health. “Consumers will get a notice explaining how their health plans, doctors, pharmacies and other healthcare providers use, disclose and protect their personal information. Consumers may file complaints about privacy issues with their health plans or providers or with our Office for Civil Rights” (HIPAA: Impact).

Patient data security in hospitals and every healthcare organization is facing issues with breaches that are causing a challenge for the healthcare industry to provide quality care to their patients. Improving patient’s data security should be a top priority. The focus of this paper is to examine four quantitative researches on the threats and challenges hospitals are facing due to patient data security breach.

Medical technology gives accessibility to online hackers and the possibilities for an attack on the Hipaa system. The way this system is set up it goes not only to public individuals but also government individuals, so smartphones can be used to hack a server and cause delicate information to get out. Personal information is stored in one location for convenience and accessibility, which is all the same for an identity thief. Smart phones can also be used for other measures such as getting into personal information and which is also part of being a hacker.

In conclusion, healthcare privacy is the responsibility of everyone involved in an organization. No organization is immune to the possibility of a security breach. “Health care security breaches are on the rise…giving employers reason to be concerned” (Pyrillis, p. 15) “The burgeoning use of social media by healthcare personnel is posing substantial challenges to patient privacy” (Solove, 2013, p. 8) As for HITECH and HIPAA, there is no end in site. Alongside healthcare technology progressing at such a rapid pace, privacy

To keep the security of health record information secure has concerns of breach exist. Meaning unauthorized users tend to get the information without the knowledge of who is looking into it, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the interest of the patient and to understand the importance of confidentiality in health records information. The way HIPAA is changing will give physicians and hospitals new rules that could require them to keep track of the instances in which patient’s health information is shared with third parties for reasons including treatment and managing payments. It will also provide critical consumer protection. Not only will the rules create a substantial burden for physician practices and hospital to establish new capabilities to enhance privacy in a meaningful way.

Security breaches in protected health information can carry heavy consequences. The HITECH ACT requires any incident affecting more than 500 patients to be reported and investigated (“Breaches Affecting 500”). This exposure can be damaging to the health organization’s image and reputation. Not only does this generate bad publicity which can damage patient’s trust in the healthcare organization but the potential of financial consequences as well. According to a Ponemon Institute study, data breaches cost United States hospitals approximately $6 billion per year (“Data Breaches Cost”). Healthcare

Study reported that data breaches has cost the healthcare sector $6.2 billion. The report said that nearly 8 out of 10 healthcare institutions were hit with two or more data breaches in 2014 and 2015. Moreover, 45 percent of healthcare institutions were affected with more than five breaches during the said period. The report surveyed 91 healthcare institutions and 84 healthcare business partner institutions like pharmaceutical firms, IT and service providers and medical device makers (Ryan,

The number of HIPAA breaches is on the rise as hackers continue to focus on the target-rich healthcare environment. In 2016 the number of healthcare data breaches that involved more than 500 records rose by 22%, exposing over 16 million patient records . This trend is expected to increase again in 2017 due to the larger profits found in

During this research I will discuss the challenges that the Healthcare Industry face and ways to mitigate these risks. It will also discuss security safeguards that will assist with preventing data breaches, from physical security up to network security. Protecting the organization data is the most important thing in a Healthcare facility. In the Healthcare industry, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has security rules that were established to protect individuals’ electronic personal health information (ePHI). There has been countless number of data breaches lately in healthcare facilities. They are at a much-much larger risk with the demand of healthcare facilities switching all of the data to an Electronic Health Records system. “Electronic Health Records is an electronic version of a patient’s medical history, that is maintained by the provider over time, and may include all of the key administrative clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider, including demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports.” (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2012) There has been a rule created called the “Breach Notification Rule” which I will explain in detail.

Protecting the privacy of patient’s health information is a main concern among health care providers today. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 known as HIPAA was approved by law to safeguard not only patients but also health care workers. However, sometimes people tend to violate these laws unintentionally or sometimes intentionally. According to an article from the Department of Health and Human Service website (2011), HHS imposes a $4.3 million civil money penalty for violating HIPAA privacy rules on Cignet Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011). This paper will elaborate on the violation issue of Cignet Health and the population it affects most, the ethical and

The nature of healthcare is constantly evolving due to innovations in technology which enable health records to be electronically exchanged between healthcare systems, hospital networks, and other healthcare settings. This is referred to as a healthcare information exchange. This electronic exchange of information has the potential to enhance the quality of healthcare. Health records can be transmitted between patients, doctors, hospitals, and other providers at the time of service. Despite the effort to improve efficiency by implementing these healthcare information exchanges, there have been a number of patient data breaches occurring more frequently than ever. The severity of this is exemplified when Rossin (2012) presents how, “In 2010