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Research Paper: PRIVACY POLICIES 1

HEALTH CARE PRIVACY POLICIES 2

Research Paper – Health Care Privacy Policies

Privacy in the health care industry

The healthcare industry's privacy means that what a patient tells a health care provider, what the health care providers write down about patients, any medications that patients take, and all other information related to the patient are kept private. The law requires that all the health information and medical records of a patient have to be kept private and safe by all health care and medical professionals, and all health care facilities, like the clinics and hospitals (Patil & Seshadri, 2014). In this regard, the law requires that anything that a patient discusses with the doctor to be kept confidential and private between the two and the organization they work for. When a patient goes to a new doctor, he/she can choose to reveal his/her previous medical records with other health doctors by giving written consent to the earlier doctors to send medical information to the new doctor.

Research question

How do healthcare companies address privacy in their policies?

Background

Most organizations in the health care industry prioritize the privacy policy in every aspect of their health services. The organizations selected for this research are Mayo Clinic, United Health Group, and McKesson Corp. All of these organizations declare private policies on their website and assure all their clients/patients that there is no information regarding them or their heath that will be shared with third parties without their consent. For Mayo Clinic, it begins its privacy policy by first defining protected health information, which is any information, whether paper. Electronic, or oral that is created or received by Mayo Clinic relating to the health care of a patient or patient payment about medical services. Therefore, the Mayo clinic considers the privacy of patients as part of its primary mission in meeting the patient's needs. It has taken the necessary precautions against disclosure or inappropriate use of patient’s medical information.

Similarly, the UnitedHealth Group issues a clear privacy policy to its clients. It disclaims that there is zero chance that the information regarding patient health will be shared with third parties without their consent. The Company's privacy policy clearly states that its main objective is to adhere to the laws and regulations regarding the privacy of health care information. Thus it applies every available resource to ensure that all data regarding health care of patients are protected and thoroughly guarded against any public intrusion. The most exciting aspect regarding the privacy policy is that they outline the few situations and circumstances under which they are likely to share the private information regarding the health of the clients, including when it is a court order, or when the Company is sold or merged with another company. However, all these situations will be notified to the individual holder of the information with a clear explanation of the Company's intentions. McKesson Corp is also another health organization that commits itself to guard the private information of their clients. The Company explains the information that they collect from the customers, including their health and health-related issues, their personal contact information, their work environment, and information that the person shares on the internet. This explanation gives the patients an insight into the type of information that the Company has regarding them while assuring them that it will be kept confidential and private except in some circumstances where they will be notified in advance.

References

McKesson Corp Privacy notice. https://www.mckesson.com/About-McKesson/Privacy-Notice/

UnitedHealth Care Group Privacy information. https://www.uhc.com/privacy

Mayo Clinic Notice of Privacy Practices. https://mcmapp.mayoclinic.org/content/PrivacyPolicy.htm

Patil, H. K., & Seshadri, R. (2014). Big data security and privacy issues in healthcare. In 2014 IEEE international congress on big data (pp. 762-765). IEEE.