HIPAA Security Risk Analysis

Regulation placed upon the healthcare system only seek to improve safety and security of the patients we care for. The enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the enactment of Meaningful Use Act the United States government has set strict regulations on the security of health information and has allotted for stricter penalties for non-compliance. The advancement of electronic health record (EHR) systems has brought greater fluidity and compliance with healthcare but has also brought greater security risk of protected information. In order to ensure compliance with government standards organizations must adapt

Lately I have been hearing a lot about security of patient’s health records and how people are losing their jobs behind accessing information that they have no need to be in. It got me to wondering just how secure our personal information is from prying eyes and how who is alerted when these prying eye are in information that doesn’t concern them. So, when I ran across this article “Security Audits of Electronic Health Information” and “HIPAA Security Rule Overview” it caught my eye and curiosity on how they might work hand in hand when it comes to protecting what information is accessed by personnel. So, I choose these articles to get more information on this topic.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) secures protected health information (PHI) from unsanctioned access. PHI comprises any identifiable facts regarding a patient that may be composed of their address, name, and medical records number. HIPAA offers regulations that are needed for enhanced data security that is increasingly distinct to the health care industry. Usually, patients are the main

report that ?? percent of healthcare organizations experienced at least one data breach. In addition, this research introduced two major causes of data breaches that most of healthcare organizations suffered. First is . Second is . Further, when the organization is full compliance with HIPAA privacy and security requirement, it would lead to reduce data breaches and improve the privacy and security of patient's

It is essential that health care researchers and/or managers abide by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) before sharing any patient health information to the public. The Privacy Rule under HIPPA will permit the sharing of health information without patient permission for payment, treating, and health care operations, and other specified purposes (Koontz, 2015). In addition, the Security Rule under HIPPA is designed to ensure that patient health information is protected from the unauthorized disclosure and access (Koontz, 2015). After all, the increase in health information technology makes it easier for researchers to obtain patient health data (Largent, Joffe, & Miller, 2011). However, the health care researcher

According to the HIPAA, several laws have been introduced to protect the rights of individuals with regard to accessing their personal information. Proposals such as patient’s having the right to control their personal files while at the same time, medical professionals can have access to pertinent information on a need to know basis. Controlled access gives the patient an opportunity to control disclosure of select information in the Electronic Health Record so that certain information can be available to health providers. The broad networking capabilities enabled by the internet

Each policy that has been formulated and brought forth to legislation goes through its many challenges and analyzation before being implemented and becomes a policy and part of legislation. The statutes of HIPAA were brought forth and formulated in hopes of regulating covered entities and providing a type of universal protection of patient information and data. There is no doubt that the policy for HIPAA created skepticism about health privacy laws and the impact that it would have on the health care industry and its professionals.

Massive security breaches have run rampant throughout the healthcare industry, making EHR’s harder and harder to properly implement. With increased scrutiny and the stringent regulations surrounding the healthcare industry, protecting the healthcare information stored electronically is critical to the success of any future attempts at implementing healthcare electronic recording systems. The struggle lies in the fact that so many threats exist that any facility can be completely overwhelmed with the daunting task of securing information while attempting to implement new systems. Although Healthcare info has many threats such as human, technological, and natural threats, and it faces intense scrutiny due to the HIPAA regulation requirements, it is still possible to protect and secure it through physical, administrative, and technical safeguards.

The terms "risk assessment" and "risk analysis" often get used interchangeably. Under HIPAA, these two terms have very specific meanings: Risk Analysis is defined in the Security Rule {45 CFR § 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(A)}. It is part of making sure your organization is set up properly to comply with HIPAA. Risk Assessment is defined in the Breach Notification Rule. {45 CFR § 164.402.}

Patient privacy is a serious concern for healthcare organizations. Protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of patient information is a major undertaking. Since the enactment of the ARRA-HITECH Act, the confidentiality of patients has been a leading concern for healthcare organizations. Healthcare providers are under pressure to secure access to clinical applications and protect the underlying information technology (IT) infrastructure from misuse by insiders, hackers, and identity thieves (McAfee, 2011). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of an individual’s health information and governs the way healthcare providers manage and disclose protected health information (PHI). To comply with the ARRA-HITECH, healthcare providers must introduce appropriate systems and practices to comply with HIPAA. In particular, the act introduces new regulations governing the confidentiality of EHRs.

The expeditious increase in legal landscape in HIPAA, providing guidance to health organizations on the utilization of mobile devices and volunteering into the cloud is a multifaceted matter since there are unknown inherent security risks. Most lawmaking and guideline bodies are still contending with the privacy and data security implications in the cloud computing and mobile devices pertaining to health care. Therefore, health care organizations sorting to mobile device usage and cloud computing should bear in mind the security risks that it might carry and violations of the HIPAA policy.

In 2009, the United States enacted a sweeping economic recovery bill entitled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As part of the controversial bill, the U.S. took on the imperatives of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. This dimension of the total bill has been more positively received than its umbrella legislation, primarily because it proceeds from an assumption that most members of both the public and the federal government can agree upon. Namely, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (2009) asserts, the HITECH Act operates on the understanding that improved Health Information Technology (HIT) will ultimately result in improved system efficiency, reduced wastefulness and, most importantly, better health outcomes. However, as the discussion here notes, the relatively positive reception to the HITECH Act is not without its reservations. Specifically, a host of security and privacy concerns have come to the forefront since the adoption of legislation. The discussion below also considers that repairing these concerns is the shared responsibility of the U.S. government and the health facilities and providers that must ultimately work directly with sensitive patient information and evolving technology.

According to HIPAA, the required implementation specification for risk analysis requires a covered entity to, “conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information held by the covered entity.”

The rising consumerism and globalization in healthcare have revolutionized our current healthcare system. As an outcome, many healthcare organizations have been implementing various forms of health information technology (HIT). Therefore, there has been a widespread use of HIT to improve quality of care, reducing medical errors, and advancing to patient-centric care. However, these technological advancements are putting a risk at the shared patient health information (PHI). So, despite the advantages of HIT on the healthcare delivery system, there is a strong need to balance the privacy concerns of the patients.

Security breaches resulting from continuing changes in technology are on the rise. Threats and risks to information technology (IT) systems and data are a current problem facing companies and organizations and healthcare facilities are no different. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), implemented in 1996, helps protect a patients’ right to privacy. In addition, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical