HIPAA Encryption Compliance 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

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was established in 1996. This Act was put into place in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system. The HIPAA law includes a Privacy

The main goal of HIPAA is to protect unauthorized access and misuse of confidential health information. It allows for the safe storage of any health facts used, collected, transmitted or maintained by any health organization. It states that all health information about a particular client is completely confidential, regardless of what the format is and whether it is transmitted, maintained or collected. Protected information is that health information that already identifies the patient or could be used in order to identify the patient; it also relates to any of the patient’s past, present or future health conditions, any treatment the patient receives and any payment the patient makes toward their care.

The primary goal of the Privacy Rule is to protect the individual’s health information from improper use and at the same time allowing the transfer of health information that will deliver and stimulate high quality health care. The Privacy Rule, affect health plans, health care clearinghouses, as well as health care provider who provide health information in electronic method in association with transactions for which the Secretary of HHS has adopted standards under HIPAA (HHS.gov, 2008).

Under the HIPAA compliance audit program if a healthcare organization has attested and is later audited and found not to be compliant with HIPAA, the organization could face penalties including giving back the meaningful use incentive money. (Goedert, 2013) provided the following ways to ensure compliance: conduct mock audits, make sure all data within the organization is encrypted, computer access is logged, network security gaps have been filled, policies and regulations have been updated and expanded, and most importantly that all staff complete annual HIPAA training courses with emphasis on privacy and security.

All healthcare providers, health organizations, and government health plans that use, store, maintain, or transmit patient health care information are required to comply with the privacy regulations of the HIPAA

The privacy rule applies to personal health information in any form, electronic or paper, which includes the entire medical record. Individuals have full access to their information, can limit who can gain access to his or her records, can request changes to their medical record if there’s any reason they suspect that the information isn't accurate. In addition, the private information shared is kept to the minimal amount needed. Also, the patients have the privilege to decide whether or not to release their protected health information or PHI for purposes unrelated to any treatments or payment issues, such as research project. (Krager & Krager, 2008) HIPAA implemented specific code sets for diagnosis and procedures to be used in all transactions. Covered entities must adhere to the content and format requirements of each standard. (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, n.d)The security rule supplements the privacy rule; it deals specifically with electronic PHI or ePHI. It applies to covered entities that transmit health information in electronically. The Security Rule requires covered entities to keep appropriate

Automation and interconnections with information in their healthcare environments need increasing support, security measures need to be implemented without disrupting the workflow of approved users, costs associated with data breaches and damage to their reputation need to be avoided. IT budgets constraints also impose limitations in many healthcare institutions. Compliance with security and privacy related regulations in healthcare and making sure what policies and standards should be implemented requires solutions that clearly address security challenges so that they can be integrated into a healthcare institution’s existing infrastructure and business practice. As data is transmitted across countless environments and is stored on an ever-expanding grouping of endpoint and storage devices such as computers, laptops, and removable storage devices, it will become evident that there will be a need for strong encryption. Under the HITECH Act and comparable state laws, encrypted data that is received or acquired by unauthorized persons through a lost or stolen electronic device or an errant email, is typically not considered a breach. However, healthcare institutions need to determine the level of encryption they should adopt. For example, a hospital could decide where there is the greatest risk of information loss (patient data in email messages or on storage drive) that is not on internal

HIPAA requires doctors to supply accurate information to insurance companies. Why? Good question. Let’s say that you have a cold and go to the doctor to get a shot. You go, spend about 15 minutes, and leave. But, the doctor files a form with the insurance company saying he performed surgery, took a blood test, gave you a complete examine, and on and on. The doctor did this, obviously, to get more money from the insurance company, illegally, one might add. That is a back end purpose of HIPAA to protect insurance companies. Next

Any patient that is seen by a physician within the United States is to be protected by the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” or HIPAA, which was passed into law in 1996 (Jani, 2009). All health care facilities dealing with any protected health information (PHI) are to ensure that all physical/electronic processes are safeguarded from any third party entity or unauthorized personnel according to HIPAA. All health care data to include any medical insurance

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).

These rule are similar but are also very distinct. The Privacy rule focuses on the right of an individual to control the use of his or her personal information, along with confidentiality of PHI in electronic, paper, and oral formats. The Security rule focuses on administrative, technical and physical safeguards, specifically ePHI. Protection of ePHI data from unauthorized access, whether external or internal, stored or in transit, is all part of the security rule. Security is defined as the mechanism in place to protect the privacy of health information, while privacy is defined as the right of an individual to keep his/her individual health information from being

"HIPAA doesn?t necessarily prescribe the solutions, but it does require physicians to look at all of the ways that they use and access data today and determine whether that?s reasonable or not." to help you begin your HIPAA compliance process, following are some practical ideas for rethinking how you maintain and use patient information in your office. Appoint one or two staff members (depending on the size of your office) to review the HIPAA act, determine the changes your practice needs to make, and decide if you?ll need outside help. To keep this project manageable, do not wait until the last minute. Remember: most of the healthcare industry will have to be HIPAA compliant by April 14, 2003. Furthermore, compliance is not optional. Those found in violation of the act will be penalized: "Civil penalties range up to $25,000 per violation of each standard. Criminal penalties range up to $250,000 in fines and/or up to 10 years in prison."3

Protected health information (PHI) is information in a medical record or set of medical data that can be used to identify an individual and was created during the normal healthcare process (1). Medical identity theft is the use of PHI to obtain medical care, drugs, or submit claims to insurance in another person’s name (2). To help prevent medical identity theft, the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 with the purpose of directing how patient is used and can be made available. HIPAA is typically divided into 2 rules: the privacy rule and the security rule. The Privacy rule establishes the standards to protect individual healthcare data and applies to health plans, clearinghouses, and healthcare providers that conduct certain electronic healthcare

HIPAA was put in place to help set standards on protecting a patients personal health information, therefore HIPAA does affect a patient’s access to medical records. A patient can review or obtain a copy of their records by submitting, to the physician (covered entity), a request for such in writing or a medical release form. In which case the covered entity can release a “designated record set” of certain personal