Security and Privacy of Health Information
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Security and Privacy of Health Information
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was created to modernize the flow of healthcare information and protects the information of patients held by health care institutions and health care insurance industries. The information is protected from theft and fraud, which addresses the limitations of health care coverage of security. HIPAA was also created to counter the discrimination that people with preexisting conditions go through, as many insurance companies did not accept to cover them. The privacy rule in HIPAA shows the circumstances under which a patient’s information may be disclosed.
The HITECH Act was created to encourage the use of electronic health records and supporting technology in health care. The privacy laws of the act widen the laws under HIPAA as it increases the potential legal liability for noncompliance and also offers more enforcement. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 is a federal law that aims to protect individuals from genetic discrimination in health employment and insurance. The privacy laws under the act aim to prevent the use of genetic information by employers in making employment decisions and also prevent them from asking private information from employees or those applying for jobs.
The incident of CVS pharmacies violating HIPAA ND GINA laws entailed the violation of the privacy laws of millions of health care consumers by CVS. Information on the health care consumers was disposed of wrongly, and hence it could be easily accessed. CVS had failed to implement adequate policies and procedures, had not adequately trained its employees on how to dispose of consumer’s information, and also did not maintain and implement a station policy for its workers (“CVS Resolution Agreement,” 2020). The orders given in violation of the act include the requirement of CVS to designate employees who were accountable for the security program (“CVS Caremark Corporation, In the Matter of,” 2020). They were also to identify the material internal and external risks of the security, integrity of customer information, and also the confidentiality of the information that was wrongly disposed of.
References
CVS Caremark Corporation, In the Matter of. (2020). Retrieved 9 April 2020, from http://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-and-proceedings/cases/2009/06/matter-cvs-caremark-corporation-corporation
CVS Resolution Agreement. (2020). Retrieved 9 April 2020, from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/examples/cvs/index.html