The federal and state government has laws that protect people’s rights and
access to health care. For example, the HIPAA Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a “Mandated administrative simplification
regulations that govern privacy, security, and electronic transactions standards
for health care information”. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, also
known as Obama Care, makes affordable health care available to more people.
The state and federal government also provides health care to many Americans
through Medicare (Title 18) and Medicaid (Title 19). All health care providers
must put in place policy and procedures that meet the government’s
regulations. This includes maintaining and sharing copious records for billing
and auditing purposes (Bowie, Mary Jo, 2019).
I have worked in a nursing home and several substance abuse and behavioral
health agencies and can attest that much of my time is spent on paperwork and
checking other’s paperwork for completeness. In my opinion, the best way to
reduce the number of uninsured while maximizing quality and minimizing
costs is to reduce waste, such as paperwork, in the health care administration.
Health care information systems can contribute to this through automation and
digitization.
Reference
Bowie, Mary Jo (2019). Essentials of health information management
principles and practices (4th ed.) Cengage. https://www.cengage.com/
