Privacy and Confidentiality
Healthcare providers are obligated to follow the legal guidelines provided by the United States federal and state government. The healthcare providers are first obligated to hold the information they access confidential b having privileged communication only to allowed parties. The information shared between the patient and physician, or any other clinical professional is supposed to respect the individual right of the patient’s privacy. American Medical Association provides the principles of ethics which guide the information disclosed to a physician during their course of the relationship with the patient. Healthcare providers are secondly obligated to allow the patients to decide how their information is shared. Different federal and state laws have defined the actions that healthcare facilities need to observe to ensure privacy and confidentiality in healthcare.
Official Title of Laws
The United States Privacy act of 1974 provides the principles of fair information practices on how information is collected, maintained, used and disseminated. The act provides regulations on how federal agencies, including health care providers. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) also provides standards for privacy of Individually Identifiable Information and Security Standards for protection of electronic health information (‘U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’, 2003). HIPAA provides the baseline for privacy protection but allows health care providers to follow other federal and state laws. HIPAA ensures there are confidentiality, integrity and availability of protected healthcare information by regulating how information is created and transmitted. The law also protects against anticipated threats, use and compliance of healthcare workforce on privacy laws.
HIPAA is a federal law, but also various states have created laws that guide in maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of patients’ information. Apart from the federal government, the states have laws that define how privacy and confidentiality in healthcare information (‘U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’, 2003). A state like Texas has the Texas Medical Privacy Act of 2001 that seeks to expand the protection provided by HIPAA and bring Texas healthcare facilities into compliance with HIPAA federal standards (Luna, 2008). Texas Act increases the range of entities covered by HIPAA; the act prevents the use of patient’s information for business gain or marketing without the acknowledging of the patient and prohibits re-identification of de-identified information.
Health Care Organization’s Obligations to meet Patient’s Legal Rights
Health care providers get obligated to comply with the principles provided by HIPAA and state laws in protecting the privacy and confidentiality of their patients. Health care providers get required by HIPAA to allow patients to have a say on their information. The care providers must create strategies on how the individuals will access their medical information, how it is recorded and used. The care providers should acknowledge the person’s right to which information is contained in the system and decided whether they agree to the use and disclosures of their data. Health care providers must collect the information with the permission of the subjects or according to legal authorities. American Health Information Management Association Code of Ethics states that health care providers must ‘Advocate, uphold, and defend the individual’s right to privacy and the doctrine of confidentiality in the use and disclosure of information’ (AHIMA, 2011). The health organization gets obligated to provide the individuals with control over their information by giving them the right to access and amend their health information.
Health care providers are obligated to provide security to the health information of individuals to avoid violation of their privacy and confidentiality. Care providers create, maintain and use personal data and should ensure reliability by preventing misuse of the information. Care providers apply HIPAA principles to ensure personal data is protected according to HIPAA Privacy Rule, which states the purpose of HIPAA as ‘…to define and limit circumstances in which an individual’s protected health information may get used or disclosed…’ (HHSa, 2003). Health care providers are required to follow the guidelines of HIPAA by creating administrative, physical and technical security safeguards to improve the security of personal data. Texas healthcare providers adapt to the obligations provided by HIPAA in complying with the requirements needed for patience information protection.
Consequences for Non-Compliance
Health care providers are subject to legal actions as individual caregivers or as an organization when they violate the privacy and confidentiality laws. Parties involved, especially the individuals whose information get recorded, contained or used without their permission may seek justice through court actions. These actions may lead to penalties to healthcare providers, including facilitation of the damages received and in worst cases suspension of involved parties.
- Failure to allow Individual Control their Medical Information
Members of an organization that fail to provide an individual with choices on how their health information gets accessed and used are subject to disciplinary actions and may even get terminated for not upholding privacy and confidentiality policies. A Texas Hospital Employee got sentenced for violating HIPAA by wrongly disclosing health information for personal gain (“Former Hospital Employee Sentenced for HIPAA Violations”, 2015). The employee got an 18 months jail sentence for obtaining protected information and using it for other intentions rather than the one allowed by the patient. Texas court applied the HIPAA regulations as the basis for the case hearing.
- Failure to Provide Data Security
Health care providers may violate HIPAA principles by not conducting risk analysis and identifying the security risks in the facility. Health care providers may face financial penalties for failing to provide security to the patients’ information during the collection, containing and dissemination of information. UCLA Health System got fined $865, 500 for failing to provide security to patient information leading to access of non-authorized personnel (Journal, 2011). The patients affected by this breach were celebrities who complained that the hospital did not restrict access to their private information by various employees. Some of the member staff got fired for snooping on the patient’s information.
Healthcare Service Organization Management Actions to meet Legal Obligation for patients’ rights
There is a need for health care facilities and providers to observe the policies of security and confidentiality to ensure they do not violate the patients’ rights. As a manager of a healthcare organization, one should ensure promotion human rights compliance by creating effective structures, training and adapting the right technology (AHIMA, 2011). Building the right structures include making sure the employees in the organization are working in an environment that allows them to have a good relationship with the patients. The environment acts as the basis for effective communication between the patient and physicians. The care providers should know what they should get involved in and what they should avoid. Efficient information enables physicians, and other caregivers avoid mistakes when dealing with patients’ information. Privacy and confidence include the creation of physical and technical strategies that limit the access of patient’s information. A manager may create security barriers such as passwords in healthcare computers to ensure unauthorized individuals do not access patient information.
Conclusion
Privacy and confidentiality are important aspects in promoting effective healthcare provision and promotion of human rights. HIPAA provides the United States with guidelines on how healthcare organizations should practice ethical services to promote effective healthcare. Health care provides influence with the privacy and confidentiality of their patients by allowing patients to access and decide on how their information gets maintained and used. Caregivers also promote privacy and confidentiality by providing security to patient information to prevent access by unwanted parties. Observation of such groups influences how organizations comply with a patient’s legal rights to avoid penalties.
References
AHIMA. (2011). American Health Information Management Association Code of Ethics.
http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_024277.hcsp?dDocName=bok1_024277
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHSa), Office for Civil Rights. (2003). Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/privacysummary.pdf
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHSb), Office for Civil Rights. (2003). Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/srsummary.html
Former Hospital Employee Sentenced for HIPAA Violations. (2015). Retrieved 29 August 2020, from https://www.justice.gov/usao-edtx/pr/former-hospital-employee-sentenced-hipaa-violations#:~:text=Joshua%20Hippler%2C%2030%2C%20formerly%20of,U.S.%20District%20Judge%20Leonard%20Davis.
Journal, H. (2011). UCLA Hospitals Receives $865K HIPAA Fine for Failing to Protect Celebrity Medical Records. Retrieved 29 August 2020, from https://www.hipaajournal.com/ucla-hospitals-receives-865k-hipaa-fine-failing-protect-celebrity-medical-records/#:~:text=The%20Department%20of%20Health%20and,accessed%20by%20non%20authorized%20personnel.
Luna, J. (2008). Texas Medical Privacy Act, Health Law & Policy Institute. Law.uh.edu. Retrieved 29 August 2020, from https://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/perspectives/Privacy/010830Texas.html#:~:text=The%20Texas%20Medical%20Privacy%20Act,where%20HIPAA%20has%20left%20gaps.