HIPAA is a national statute that prohibits access to health information about an individual. It was first established on August 21, 1996, and it is now in effect (Annas, 2003). The HIPAA privacy rule created nationwide measures for the protection of people' medical information as well as other sensitive health information, including genetic information. These transactions include healthcare professionals as well as medical care plans that participate in the Electronic Health Care Transactions. The “privacy rule is also referred to as the Standards for the Protection of Personally Identifiable Health Information.” The privacy regulation contributed to the establishment of a number of national guidelines for the safeguarding of particular patient data for the first ever.
Personal health information, often known as PHI, is protected by the privacy regulation, which establishes the measures required to do so. It also placed limitations and restrictions on the use and dissemination of protected health information (PHI) without the consent of the patient (Rothstein, 2013). Patients also gained control over their medical information as a result of the privacy legislation. These privileges included the ability to receive and review files of their medical files, and the ability to request modifications to those data.
The Privacy Rule's objective is to preserve a person's medical information while allowing for the transfer of patient data necessary to offer high-quality nursing services while also safeguarding the public's welfare. The Privacy Rule must strike a balance between protecting individuals and communities while also being broad enough to cover the wide range of uses and exposures that may be required, as well as flexible enough to adapt to any and all scenarios that may arise or be encompassed by it (Shay & Gosfield, 2013). The issue has been handled in a variety of ways by the statute. The HIPAA privacy standards have played a crucial role in the passage of numerous pieces of healthcare bill since its inception in 1996. The rules established the requirements that are still in effect today for health-care professionals and health-insurance companies. Because of the uniqueness of the healthcare industry, the privacy law has been made more flexible and broad, and as a result, it encompasses the aforementioned uses and disclosures of personal information. Under the HIPAA privacy Act, secured information includes all personal details that is communicated by an organization in any manner. The employment records, on the other hand, are exempt from this privacy provision.
Among those covered by the Privacy Law are health insurers, health care financial institutions, as well as any medical professional who communicates medical information and documents in linkage with operations wherein the Secretary of Health and Human Services has enacted standards under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Patients and their family are also affected by the Privacy Regulations. Because practically everyone will need some form of health care at some point in their lives, this law has an impact on virtually everybody in some way.
Annas, G. J. (2003). HIPAA regulations-a new era of medical-record privacy?.New England Journal of Medicine, 348(15), 1486-1490.
Shay, D.F. & Gosfield, A.G. (2013). HIPAA again: confronting the updated privacy and security rules Family Practice Management, 20(3), 18-22
Rothstein, M.A. (2013) HIPAA Privacy Rule 2.0, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 41(2), 525- 528
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