Week 5 Discussion
What is the government's role in healthcare? How does the government impact
healthcare organizations?
b The governments involvement in healthcare and protecting the patient information
is important. The accountability part of HIPAA protects health information by ensuring
the confidentiality and integrity of those handling the medical records. Medical
records/data not only hold medical information, they also hold personal health
information which can clearly identify who the patient is. This information can identify
the patient and pose as a risk in their information coming across the hands of the wrong
people. Of course, it should go without saying that a person’s name, date of birth, social
security number, medical information should never be shared with another however,
HIPAA protects this information not from getting out but it holds people who handle
patient information accountable for protecting it. Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), is broken down into five titles:
Title I—Health Care Access, Portability, and Renewability,
Title II—Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse, Administrative Simplification, and
Medical Liability Reform
Title III—Tax-Related Health Provisions
Title IV—Application and Enforcement of Group Health Plan Requirements
Title V—Revenue Offsets (Bowie & Green, 2018).
How does health insurance impact healthcare delivery?
b Health insurance impacts healthcare delivery in a way which can be both positive
and negative. For example, for people who do not have health insurance they do not
typically know whether or not they have high blood pressure but visit the emergency
room regularly and have high medical bills. They do not typically have a provider they
visit regularly. By not having healthcare coverage, it costs the patient more money and
they know less about their health. For those with insurance, they tend to visit their health
care providers regularly. By having this healthy relationship with their provider, they can
maintain a positive relationship with their providers. (Bowie & Green, 2018.
b How can we reduce the number of uninsured people while maximizing
quality and access and minimizing costs?
b Uninsured people spend more out of pocket for the care they receive. If they do
not pay for their care, the medical bills will go on their credit and put people further in
debt. Reducing the amount of uninsured people will promote and encourage more people
to have a regular primary care doctor that they see and in turn, physicians will be paid
more because they will see more patients. By seeing more patients means they can expand
their practice to reach even more patients. It would be great to have affordable
information for people all over.
References
(PDF) Barriers to health information systems and electronic medical records implementation: A
Field study of Saudi Arabian hospital. (n.d.). ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259678954_Barriers_to_Health_Information_Systems_a
nd_Electronic_Medical_Records_Implementation_A_Field_Study_of_Saudi_Arabian_Hospital
Bowie, M. J., & Green, M. A. (2018). Essentials of health information management: Principles
and practices. Cengage Learning.
Laws & regulations. (2021, April 28). HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/regulations/index.html
Top 10 factors for successful EHR implementation. (2010, November 24). Healthcare IT News.
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/top-10-factors-successful-ehr-implementation
Why is health care regulation so complex? (n.d.). PubMed Central (PMC).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730786/
