Healthcare Privacy And Security Laws

Health information is a fundamental piece of data which represents a person, business, organization, or a community. This data is vital in monitoring and coordination of care for individuals and communities. It not only monitors and coordinates patient care, but reduces costly mistakes and prevent duplication of treatments as well as taking a pivotal role in preserving, securing, and protecting personal health information. Since, this information is extremely essential and sensitive, it must remain secure and safe to prevent frauds and cyber-attacks. First of all, this paper discusses vitality of the health information in regards to individuals, professionals, and organizations along with its benefits to improve overall quality of life. Secondly, it discusses the role of information technology in various aspects of the industry and the what the future holds within IT.

There is no doubt in that technology has multifaceted benefits but, at the same time, it has forced mankind to feel insecure. Every industry depends upon the data of the customers and the health industry is no more an exception here. The data of each patient is shared to facilitate health itself and for more rigorous and authentic research. Hence, protecting patient data is very important. It is so important that in 1996, the federal government introduced the Health Insurance

Some health institutions believe that all the patients have the powers to control the use of their records and before any file is accessed, the patient must be consulted by the personnel responsible. To others, however, some of the patients may not know the needs of the health industry, and therefore, at least 200 people can be allowed to access their records. According to this group, the only way to improve the patient’s privacy is by reducing the number of people who access the records. Thus, despite the fact that digital files save on cost and time, there is need to focus on some of the issues affecting the privacy of records in the health sector. Therefore, as much as the current law allows sharing of patient information during payments and treatment, caution must be taken to reduce data mining and marketing using the same

This particular goal mainly focused on privacy of the individual. Invasion to privacy is strictly restricted and all the health information about the patient should be used with their consent only. Moreover every health system manager have aware about legal implications currently in practice to protect privacy.

While I understand the need for both, I think that Congress should make HIPAA the law of the land with regards to medical privacy. Every individual’s rights and information should have the same level of protection no matter where in the United States they are located. Not only would a universal law help to eliminate the confusion between states, it would also remove a few of the barriers associated with universal healthcare. With better communication across state lines, patients will be able to send and receive information in a timely manner improving patient outcomes and quality.

Because technology is being use more and more by medical practice, there is a lot of information about patients being gather on an electronical from and the security rules is intended to protect that information.

HIPAA privacy regulations expressly permit hospitals to release the patient's name, location in the hospital, and general condition , so long as the patient has not told you not to release the information. The hospital has a responsibility to tell patients what information will be included in the hospital directory and to whom that information will be disclosed. The patient has the option to expressly state that he or she does not want information released“including confirmation of his or her presence in the facility. In some cases, patients will not have had the opportunity to state a preference about having their information released. For example, a patient's medical condition may prevent hospital staff from asking about information preferences

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

Today, the patient will visit the same doctor and the doctor will enter the data into a tablet or pc. The EHR is a designed very similar to the paper chart, but is programmed to collect and segregate the information in different formats to transmit securely to the necessary partners. Those partners include insurance carriers, public health entities, clearinghouses, laboratories, and pharmacist. This data is collected and stored on secure servers. In most EHR’s today, a doctor who has a private practice, and maybe affiliated with a hospital has the ability to allow the hospital to access a patient’s record, if that patient has agreed to release their information to the hospitals. So if the patient is taken to the local hospital, the hospital can have access to the patient’s records if an authorization is in place. The EHR will not only collect the patient medical information, it will track the medical information. Providers are required to secure the information and track the medical records activity via a built-in audit system that will show the medical records history and the name of all parties that access the patient’s records. Poor EHR system design and improper use can cause EHR-related errors that jeopardize the integrity of the information in the EHR, leading to errors that endanger patient safety or decrease the quality of care. These unintended consequences also may increase fraud and abuse and can have

The Privacy Rule states that your personal health information can be used or shared for specific reasons that are not directly related to your care and some of these reasons include making sure physicians are giving the proper care to you as a patient, reporting influenza in your city or state or any required reporting by state or federal law. Regardless of whether it is being shared by physicians, health insurance providers or healthcare clearinghouses, a patient has the right to learn how their health information is used and if the purpose is not directly related to your care, then no health information can be disclosed without your permission. This means, without your written authorization, your physician cannot give your personal health information to your employer, other family members or share it for

Privacy of health information has become an area of emphasis across the healthcare industry. It is important to understand what data is protected under federal regulations, how it can be shared, and how to prevent any accidental exposure of protected data. It is possible that data that should be protected can be exposed without anyone even realizing a violation has occurred. Exposure of protected healthcare data can result in medical identity theft and is therefore a very important and hot topic. The security and privacy of healthcare data is necessary to ensure consumer confidence in the healthcare industry and to prevent medical identity theft.

As the public health director, records that track diabetes rates, the incidence of HIV, and immunization records are reported. The health department collects such information in order to protect the public. The reports are used for prevention or controlling diseases, injuries, or disabilities (Public, 2003). Additionally, this includes the reporting of a disease or injury; reporting vital events, like birth or deaths; and conducting public health surveillance, investigations, or interventions (Public, 2003). Recently, there has been breaches of stolen employee’s computers or an outside hacker has broken into the system and downloaded information. While this is concerning, the public health department is doing everything they can to fix the

In light of available security measures and their widespread acceptance within the information security community, there is no excuse for healthcare organizations to fail in fulfilling their duty to protect personal patient information. Guaranteeing the confidentiality and privacy of data in healthcare information is crucial in safeguarding the data of patients as there should be a legal responsibility to protect medical records from unauthorized access.

This research article examines the security concerns of using mobile technology systems in health care institution. Various methods of ensuring privacy and security of patient’s electronic medical information are addressed. This high quality article is relevant for present day mobile security issues. The authors utilize a host of credible references in the health care and information technology fields.

Information security and privacy is occupying a most important role in the healthcare territory in order to deliver protected information process to their patients (Appari, & Johnson, 2010). As healthcare department is the organization with vast data and essential information the hospitals has to keep a useful information security technique in their enterprise process (Mishra et al., 2011). Information security is one such phase in the healthcare sphere which is extremely problematic to describe and evaluate even to the individuals who are working on the process. In the healthcare organization, information is of many types which required for the work and even the security is a main control for almost all the practices which are transmitted out in the healthcare field (Appari, & Johnson, 2010). Hospitals, in specific, have been instructed to create a new set of security specialists to protect healthcare data tools techniques upon which exists may rely. Healthcare data is very critical for patients because it is very confidential records. If a medical apparatus is filled with a computer virus it can even exemplify a possibility to patients ' lives. Hence, hospitals should design alertness of the risk, to defend against concerns to healthcare databanks and be concerned about the high risk of infected computers or medical tools being connected to their networks (Mishra et al., 2011).