HR Functions of Forbes Regional Hospital JoAnn Westerberg HSA320 January 31, 2013 Sherrie H. Lu, PhD HR Functions of Forbes Regional Hospital Since 1978, Forbes Regional Hospital has been the leading care provider in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh, offering comprehensive care so patients can receive their treatment in one place rather than being transported to a downtown hospital. Forbes Regional Hospital is a 350 bed facility which annually, has 50,000 emergency room visits, 12,000 surgeries, and 15,000 patient admissions. Forbes Regional Hospital offers the latest medical innovations and procedures so the patients can receive the best care in their own community. Based on the data collected, some of the possible …show more content…
HIPAA eliminated the possibility of individuals being denied coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions. It further requires insurance companies to provide coverage for small employer groups or to individual employees who lose their group coverage. The significant section of HIPAA has been Title II, “Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse, Administrative Simplification, and Medical Liability Reform.” The Privacy Rule has affected nearly all health care plans and all health care providers. Physicians’ offices, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, dentists, medical equipment dealers, billing services and others providing administrative services have all been required to implement systems designed to protect all forms of patient information. All subcontractors and suppliers coming into contact with patient information must comply with the Privacy Rule. Healthcare employees expect their employers to provide: Infrastructure, HR practices and support which are linked to improved performance especially in relation to patient care and service innovations. Public service values may be a strong determinant of performance as it relates to patients, moderating potential short-term adverse effects of unmet expectations of the employer. Training is imperative. There has to be a shift in the
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
Many healthcare professionals and organizations have not been following the regulations set forth by HIPAA. Whenever violations of HIPAA’s privacy or security laws occur the organizations responsible must be held accountable resulting in a fine or penalty. Penalties provide incentive for organizations to guarantee patient privacy and security. Recently, certain people have failed to follow through with the laws and restrictions and were forced to accept the penalty. This paper will provide three real examples of such HIPAA violations as well as solutions or ways each violation could have been prevented.
. HIPAA privacy rules are complicated and extensive, and set forth guidelines to be followed by health care providers and other covered entities such as insurance carriers and by consumers. HIPAA is very specific in its requirements regarding the release of information, but is not as specific when it comes to the manner in which training and policies are developed and delivered within the health care industry. This paper will discuss how HIPAA affects a patient's access to their medical records, how and under what circumstances personal health information can be released to other entities for purposes
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 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.
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
Title II of HIPAA covers two main areas: preventing healthcare fraud and abuse, and a broad series of rules under the framework of administrative simplification. The first area is not of significant interest to most healthcare workers. It defines numerous offenses relating to healthcare, and authorizes several programs to attempt to find and control fraud and abuse. Nurses should be aware of the proper procedures for reporting fraud and abuse at their facility. The second portion of Title II—administrative simplification—however, contains five separate rules, most of which have already had a significant impact on virtually everyone working in American health care, including all those working in any way with health information concerning
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
One major benefits is health organizations can receive governmental subsidies, which can be an increase in funding or other financial accommodations. An additional benefit is HIPAA gives health organizations access to other creditable research throughout a variety of databanks systems. Having this system also, minimize the amount of paper that health professionals have to deal with. Using technology and these systems can be viewed as a more efficient and safer way to exchange health data with other health location. It also, helps when needing certain information from the patient they that maybe required for diagnoses, treatment, or other operations. Interoperability can be considered another benefit HIPAA can also, prevent health organization from experiencing lawsuits or having huge fines. For some health locations setting certain value, vision and missions come from the implementing of HIPAA. Possible drawbacks that can occur for HIPAA is when compensation is decreasing according to the balanced budget act standards. In addition, a drawback can surface from using other systems like outpatient payment system in which, causes a decrease in profit. To maintain these systems and programs cost, therefore, having to continuously update and maintain HIPAA can be come costly. However, if these organizations follow proper protocol the marginal benefits outweighs the marginal cost.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by congress in 1996, and helps to ensure the privacy and security of Electronic Health Records (EHR's). By following the rules and regulations set forth under HIPAA, we can ensure the safety of patients' EHR's. We are responsible for protecting patients' records, and there are many measures we can take in order do this. Firstly, we must always keep patients' health information private. This means no discussing the records with people that are not authorized to know, and even then, we should only disclose the minimum necessary amount of information possible. For covered entities, we must designate a privacy and security officer to ensure the privacy
While many people supported HIPAA, there were some people and organizations that did not support HIPAA. In the beginning, the health care industry was against HIPAA and did not approve of the rules set by HIPAA. “Health care providers, health care organizations, and, to some extent, health plans thought of the proposed HIPAA rules as just another federal mandate that would cost the industry billions of dollars to implement and monitor” (Bowers, n.d.). The health care industry is still having issues with HIPAA rules and regulations but more organizations are coming to terms with HIPAA and focusing on the positive aspects that HIPAA provides instead of focusing on negative issues. Even though it can be hard for some organizations to understand HIPAA, they are researching it and coming to terms on how to handle HIPAA in order to better serve their patients.
Even though hipaa violations are an important standard in preventing many individuals from causing several breaches of information from getting out, it is important to work on a strategies within several health care organizations that will work with the privacy rules regarding violation laws. “Jill Granger & Laura Cataldo (2013) reports When working in the healthcare setting, it is important to consult with the guidelines established by one's institution and to participate in any training programs to insure that the appropriate steps are being taken to maintain privacy. There are also a variety of additional resources available from the federal government and professional organizations to assist in the training process that may be especially
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).
3.) Under HIPAA, covered entities (healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouse) must comply with the privacy rules. A covered entity may develop its own privacy rules that would accommodate its own needs of protected health information (PHI) management but it most comply with the HIPAA guidelines. It is the responsibility of the entity to put in place a privacy official to oversee the policies, procedures and be on hand and available to be contacted in reference to the privacy rule. A patient should be given a privacy notice act at his/her health facility stating how their (PHI) is being used and to whom it will be shared. The covered entity should include in the notice their duty to assure the patients privacy as well as how and whom to contact if there is a complaint or they feel that their rights have been violated. As of 2009 the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) handles complaints that are made on privacy policies, procedure and practices of HIPAA covered entities.