The Preferred Format For Clinical Health Information

electronic health record (EHR) A secure real-time, point-of-care, patient centric information resource for clinicians allowing access to patient information when and where needed and incorporating evidence-based decision support.

. 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

Now, using the existing clinical software, health care provider can readily access the e-Health record system and download and contribute up-to-date information

After decades of paper based medical records, a new type of record keeping has surfaced - the Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHR is an electronic or digital format concept of an individual’s past and present medical history. It is the principle storage place for data and information about the health care services provided to an individual patient. It is maintained by a provider over time and capable of being shared across different healthcare settings by network-connected information systems. Such records may include key administrative and clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider. Examples of such records may include: demographics, physician notes, problems or injuries, medications and allergies, vital

Typically, HIPAA regulations cover both security and privacy of protected health information. Security and privacy are dissimilar, but go hand-in-hand. The Privacy rule emphasizes the right of an individual to control the use of his or her personal information. Protected health information (PHI) should not be disclosed or used by others against their wishes. The Privacy rule covers the confidentiality of PHI in all formats including electronic, paper, and oral (Sullivan, 2014). Privacy is a promise that the information will be protected from unauthorized disclosure. The somatic security of PHI in all systems is an element of the Privacy rule. The Security rule concentrates on administrative, technical, and physical safeguards since they relate to electronic PHI (ePHI) (Koontz, 2012). Protection of ePHI data from unapproved access, whether external or internal, stored or in transit, is included in the security rule. Health care providers for example, transmit health information electronically, through clearinghouses, and health plans are all protected by the Privacy Rule (Koontz, 2012). The Security Rule is exclusive to electronic PHI. It should be notated, that electronic PHI also incorporates telephone voice response and faxback systems since they are utilized as input and output devices for computers. However,

EHR was created to have a technical way to securely exchange private and personal medical health information in hopes to improve the quality of care, decrease medical errors, limiting paper use, reduction of health care cost, and increasing a person access to affordable health care. A mandate was created for EHR stating that health records can be accessible to all facilities with patients having the capability to access their own health records at any time. Ameliorating the quality and convenience of care given to a patient, allow for cost saving measures, engage the patient and family to participate in their care, improve accuracy of medical diagnosis, and enhance the efficiency of the overall outcome of the patients’ health.

HIPAA is the Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It became law in 1996. The original intent was to help employees change jobs and keep their health insurance by making their coverage portable. Later, on April 14, 2003 lawmakers broadened the law to include the Privacy Rule. Protected Health Information(PHI) is a HIPAA term, it includes all medical information of an individual. All patients health information is protected no matter what form it is in. PHI can be controlled in many forms such as backup disk or tapes, insurance statements, lab reports, prescription forms, patient form, email, etc. Five steps to comply with the Privacy Rule are:

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or better known in the industry as HIPAA. When first introduced, the law was to help employees keep their health insurance while changing job due to one reason or another. Along with that, it sets standards for the exchange of patient information in electronic form. With these new privacy laws, clinics and hospitals could not longer share medical information with any random person. Under the law are that are called Covered Entities, which are required to keep the protected health information private. The law considers covered entities as: health plans, health care clearinghouse, health care providers, and insurance reimbursements information. What is not consider covered entities

The HIPAA Privacy Rule creates business processes to protect the use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI). PHI includes any information about health status, type of care, or payment related to care that can be related to an individual. The term is broad, and generally includes all information contained in a patient’s medical record and payment history. It includes demographics, in paper, electronic, or oral form. PHI is not limited to the documents contained in the official medical record. The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows the use and disclosure of this PHI for treatment, payment, and health care operations without written authorization from the patient. Other uses and disclosures require permission or consent from the individual.

Two regulatory requirements, which support health-IT, are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and meaningful use. The first of these regulations is HIPAA. HIPAA has two sets of federal regulations that are applied to protect the privacy and security of health information they are the privacy rule and the security rule (Health IT legislation and Regulations, 2015, p. 35). These two regulations provide guidance for providers in how much access they have with patients’ privacy rights. The privacy rule restricts the release of Electronic Protected Health Information (e-PHI) without the patient’s knowledge or consent. The security rule requires covered entities to apply safeguards that protect the confidentiality, integrity,

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA which is enforced by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services exists to ensure that the basic security surrounding protected health information exists. Under HIPAA, protected health information utilized by covered entities such as healthcare providers, specific health plans or healthcare clearinghouses are required to be maintained and secured in compliance with certain guidelines aimed at protecting its integrity. Whenever protected health information is released by a covered entity, HIPAA standards require that elements of consent and/or authorization be satisfied. In these circumstances, consent is the less formal element and can oftentimes be satisfied by the issuance

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

By law, the HIPAA Privacy Rule applies only to covered entities – health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers. However, most health care providers and health plans do not carry out all of their health care activities and functions by themselves. Instead, they often use the services of a variety of other persons or businesses. The Privacy Rule allows covered providers and health plans to disclose protected health information to these “business associates” if the providers or plans obtain satisfactory assurances that the business associate will use the information only for the purposes for which it was engaged by the covered entity, will safeguard the information from misuse, and will help the covered entity comply

There was no standard way of keeping patient data on healthcare applications. There was no communication between software companies on how interfaces in healthcare applications were to be built hence software applications were not compatible with each other. It is important that healthcare organizations follow the same standards when setting up their healthcare information system, thus creating interoperability so that the sharing and exchange of information within and across healthcare providers is facilitated. As a result, a volunteer group introduced the Health Level Seven Standard (HL7) for healthcare organizations to follow the same standards when developing their healthcare information system so that data can be shared seamlessly. In a nutshell, HL7 was introduced for the following

It’s easy to remember the distinction between EMRs and EHRs, if you think about the term “medical” versus the term “health.” An EMR is a narrower view of a patient’s medical history, while an EHR is a more comprehensive report of the patient’s overall health.