The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act

This essay will address the ethical dilemmas faced by social workers and how they address these ethical dilemmas when working with service users and carers. It will be illustrated that codes of practice and codes of ethics are of paramount importance when dealing with these dilemmas as they are ones that guide social workers as to how they should try and solve these dilemmas.

Social workers face complex ethical issues in every aspect of their profession. This work is often ethically challenging because it involves direct contact and interaction with individuals who are vulnerable. There are many factors that influence our decision making especially when working with at risk youths, we often face challenges in wanting to take on certain roles to protect our clients. These roles often conflict with our professional obligations. When our personal and professional values conflicts, our decisions may affect the individual, family, group, community and the organization.

As a social worker many problems may arise because of the constant grey area of either letting your personal values interfere with your professional opinion. It is essential to provide your client with information and tools to help them succeed and overcome their problems. Following the core values is essential to being a resourceful, competent social worker. In some cases, core values are in conflict. In a situation where more than one core value is in conflict it is considered an ethical dilemma (Hick, 2009). It’s not guaranteed that a perfect solution will arise, therefore one of the core values is subsided because the other has more of an impact on the client.

The section of the National Association of Social Work Ethics that will be discussed will be number four which includes Social Workers’ ethical responsibilities as professionals. This ethics code concentrates on a several different factors which include: 4.01 Competence, 4.02 discrimination, 4.03 private conduct, 4.04 dishonesty, 4.05 personal impairment, 4.06 misinterpretations, 4.07 solicitations, and 4.08 acknowledging credit.

Social Work is a career defined as “work carried out by trained personal with the aim of alleviating the conditions of those in need of help or welfare”. Social work varies in several fields, social workers work as part of multi-disciplinary teams with child welfare organizations, adoption and foster care agencies, hospitals, schools, prisons, mental health institutions, and more. Social work may leave the impression that it’s an easy field because it is assumed that all social workers do is serve others and manage paperwork but that is only a small chunk of the job. Social workers must deal with the ethical and emotional aspect of helping others. As a social worker, it is critical to comply with the National Association of Social Workers

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has written a code of ethics that serves many purposes. The main purpose is to identify the core ethics and values that provide the foundation for the profession. It details six basic principles for social workers to follow: service, social justice, dignity and worth, human relationships, integrity, and competence (National Association of Social Workers, 1999). The code acts as an ethical guide for students, and those professionals just

The commitment to act ethically is an essential aspect of social work due to the effect it can have on the quality of the service offered to those who engage with us. Through group discussions in our foundations of social work practice I have become extremely ethically aware and now will always seek to ascertain and respect, as far as possible, each individual’s preferences, wishes and involvement in decision making. From discussions with my fellow classmates I have learnt to strive to respect and uphold the values and principles of the profession by making sure I promote and work towards the code of ethics wherever possible. This in turn enables me act in a reliable, honest and trustworthy manner having worked closely with service users in a professional setting and learned of their good and bad experiences with practitioners through the service user experience we undertook in class. I believe I am now in a good position to apply the social work ethical principles to my professional practice, in a way that seeks to empower my service users and enable me to emulate the best practice. In addition from reading social work journals and staying on top of news regarding the profession more generally I am knowledgeable about the value base of social work as a profession .

HIPAA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act was signed into law in 1996 by President Clinton. The regulation

In the 1990’s, it became apparent that the Consumer Protection Act was insufficient for the protection of patient’s electronic health information. For several years, plans developed, and the result was HIPAA, which was enacted in 1996. It took until 1999 to finalize the Privacy Rule. The following year, the Security Rule, Transactions and Code Sets Rule, and National Provider Identifier Rule were finalized. The required compliance date for the Security Rule was 4/20/2005 to allow providers the necessary time to put policies and procedures in place. In 2006, enforcement was enacted. It quickly became apparent that technology was advancing beyond the scope of the Security Rule, and in 2009, the HITECH Act was enacted to support the Security Rule. (Sayles, 2014)

The Health Insurance and Portability Act of 1996, known by the acronym HIPAA, is a civil rights law that was passed to give patients important rights and protections in regards to their protected health information (Herold, R., and Beaver, K, 2014). This federal law was imposed upon all healthcare organizations and affects hospitals, physician practices, health insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, employers, labs, as well as other providers. All patients should now have a right to their PHI -Protected Health Information- under HIPAA which include the right to receive a notice of privacy practices, to copy and view information in their medical record, request amendments to their medical record, receive an accounting of disclosures, request communication about medical matters, restrict the use and disclosure of their medical record, and to file a complaint for

The ethical issues in the social work practice are very extensive. A social worker has to deal with many of these issues in every case they work on, especially when it comes to life or death cases.

There are many ways in which social workers can avoid ethical dilemmas. In regards to the Jones case I will explain five ethical dilemmas. I will explain what 3 core values could have benefitted the Jones family and I will give three strategies I will use to practice ethical behavior in my field of social work in the future.

According to the Preamble of the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers, “the primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human wellbeing and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.” National Association of Social Workers. (approved 1996, revised 1999, 2008). Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Washington, DC: Author. The ethical considerations of the Bruff Case as presented by Hermann and Herlihy (2006), are clearly defined and set forth Code of Ethics; additionally, the Code provides guidance to counselors on dealing with issues which might give rise

Social work being a field based on client worker interactions is inundated with many ethical issues, and one of them being confidentiality. This becomes an issue when social workers are unable to uphold this principle of confidentiality. Confidentiality, as defined by Kathleen Millstein, is the regulations both legal and ethical that protect the client’s right to privacy. This is seen as an ethical dilemma when a person is faced with a decision about whether confidentiality should be upheld in an ethically compromising situation where any decision made has some ethical flaw. This holds with the definition of an ethical dilemma which is described by Karen Allen in the New Social Work Magazine as a situation where a person is

Since the profession was recognized many concerns arose regarding the values and ethics of social workers. The key points of the NASW Code of Ethics, the CSWE Educational Policy and Standards, and HIPAA will be summarized. Some of the most challenging ethical issues facing social workers and the social work profession today, have been explored. The core values of the