Reon Jordan's Case Summary

Some people use patient information illegally. They could get their name, address, social security number, or credit card information if they have used it to pay their bill. If that happens they someone could easily run up their credit card bill and buy things they want. Then have the bill sent to the patient and before they figure it out they have already maxed out their credit cards while the patient

Disclosing confidential patient information without patient consent can happen in the health care field quite often and is the basis for many cases brought against health care facilities. There are many ways confidential information gets into the wrong hands and this paper explores some of those ways and how that can be prevented.

In the health care business, there are certain standards and laws that have been put in place to protect our patients and their personal health information. When a health care facility fails to protect their patient’s confidential information, the US Government may get involved and facilities may be forced to pay huge sums of money in fines, and risk damaging their reputation.

First is the privacy rule, which is meant to guard the confidentiality of all protected health information. This is defined as any information that includes the patient’s name or other identifiers, such as a birth date or medical record number. Protected health information can be data that is written, spoken, or in electronic form. The privacy rule came about because many healthcare workers have been far too willing to talk casually about their patients without thinking how this violates their confidentiality, The Final Rule modifies the Privacy Rule to extend direct liability for disclosures of PHI by business associates. However, the rule does not subject

     On September 24, 2010, a laptop was stolen from an unlocked Urology office at the Henry Ford Health Systems hospital. The laptop did contain password protection software; however, it may not have been enough to permit access if the thief had advanced knowledge in computers. Additionally, the information stored on the laptop did not include social security or health insurance information, but instead held “patient names, medical record numbers, dates of birth, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and treatment and doctor visits” (Moscaritolo, 2010, p. 1). It is unknown how many records were contained on the laptop, but all records were related to prostate services that were provided during an eleven year span.

On October 20, 2017, several Police Officers responded to a physical altercation happening on the 700 block of Wabash Ave, Atlantic City NJ. As a result of the altercation 2 men identified as Alphonso Johnson Sr, and Alphonso Johnson, Jr. were stabbed and taken to Atlantic Care Trauma Center in Atlantic City. Lonnie Taylor was arrested and positively identify as the suspect by a witness.

On November 29th, 2010 Peterson sent a text to Hinchy stating, “I’m not trying to start any crap but I have a print out showing that you didn’t even refill ur birth control prescription for july or august. The last time you filled ur prescription was june. I know uve lied to ur mom and harmony and anybody willing to listen but the printout does not lie. I know you lied to me wth tears and curse words and misplaced righteousness. U really should think about what you did…on ur own. You really should think about that FACT before you call me another name. What kind of person does something like that?”(Marion superior court). Hinchy followed up with a text that would state that it is illegal to obtain any of her medical information.

Hospital and health facility administrators face hardened criminals who hack medical records with ever-increasing sophistication. Hackers gain access to critical information, such as medical claims, financial data, Social Security numbers and credit card data that enable identity theft, credit card fraud and other privacy breaches. One of the major security failures in the news was the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield attack that exposed 1.1 million of its members to thefts of their personal information.[1] Combined with high-profile breaches at Anthem and Premera Blue Cross, the breach illustrates the changing role of medical administrators

In our case as an assistant to Dr. Williams and knowing about the unauthorized PHI disclosure I have a responsibility both legally and

A 46 year-old woman named Olga Hidalgo-Gato was arrested for stealing more than $35,000 from a woman she was hired to help. The victim is a 75 year-old woman residing in North Miami Beach. Hidalgo-Gato volunteered to be the woman's home health care aide after discovering that the Department of Children and Families recommended the elder hire someone. The victim's son said that his mother had known Hidalgo-Gato since she was born, and had "loved her like a daughter," (cited by Afshar). Hidalgo-Gato had been writing herself checks and taking out money from ATM accounts belonging to the victim, who did not discover the theft was taking place until realizing her account was overdrawn. Moreover, Hidalgo-Gato was neglecting her duties as a home health aide. She had not been paying the bills, keeping the house clean, or fulfilling her obligations to her client. Hidalgo-Gato had been working as a home health aide for the victim since October 2010.

In today’s health care industry providing quality patient care and avoiding harm are the foundations of ethical practices. However, many health care professionals are not meeting the guidelines or expectations of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) or obeying the organizations code of ethics policies, especially with the use of electronic medical records (EMR). Many patients fear that their personal health information (PHI) will be disclosed by hackers or unauthorized users. According to Carel (2010) “ethical concerns shroud the

Rising costs of healthcare is a valid concern for many households in America. A factor in the cost of healthcare insurance is fraud. Fraud is often very difficult to detect. The magnitude of healthcare fraud is unknown. Initial reimbursement and payment and billing timeframe of 90 days allows for fast payment of services, however, many times before there is an indication of fraudulent billing the company has closed up and moved on. Fraud in American healthcare, costs American’s millions perhaps even billions of dollars annually. Without doubt, behind every act of fraud lies a lapse in ethics. This paper will review several pieces of literature to look

Medical identity theft is described as the unlawful use of someone else’s personal information to get medical services or to make fake claims for medical services (Mancilla and Moczygemba, n.d.). Medical identity theft can be divided into three categories. One category type is using personal information and using the health coverage of an insured person. The second category consists of a medical facility worker mistreating privacy privileges to get a patient’s health insurance information, and then sell the health policy information or use it to submit false bills to the insurance company.

Recently a woman hired as a clerk in a medical facility was provided through her job duties access to the EHR system. Having this access she removed patient health record information from the system. The information included “patient names, addresses, dates of birth, health insurance information, next of kin contacts and Social Security numbers.” She sold over 12,000 pieces of record information for $3.00 each. The money she received was used to purchase personal items including clothing and designer handbags at Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Lord & Taylor, Zales and other stores. She was indicted by the state district attorney on multiple felony counts.

The department of Health and Human Services protects and guides the health and well being of individuals here in America (Thacker, 2014). They fulfill these duties providing Americans with adequate and efficient health and human services and monitoring services designed to increase the efficiency of care in the health system (Thacker, 2014). One of the services being monitored by the department of Health and Human Services is the electronic health record system, which carries private and vital information of patient’s health record enabling all eligible participating health workers access to these records (Thacker, 2014). A breach of the protective health information of patients in a health organization creates chaos as these are against the health insurance portability and accountability (HIPAA) law (Thacker, 2014). Hence, measure will have to be put in place to determine what caused the breach and how to rectify it to ensure the breach never happens again (Thacker, 2014).