The health care shortages are making it challenging for the health
care administrators to meet as well as implement federal rulings such
as HIPAA and HITECH. One of the important shortages in the health
care setting is the shortage of health workers. According to global
estimates, the world is currently facing a significant shortage of
about 4.2 million health care workers (Jensen, 2013). There are a
number of factors that results in the shortage of health workers.
Some of the most prominent factors include the lack of appropriate
training opportunities, lack of proper infrastructure, and low
remuneration. Owing to such reasons, the health care workers
choose to migrate to countries that provide them with better living
conditions as well as remuneration. This creates a shortage of skilled
health care workers. As per the requirements of HIPAA, it is
important for healthcare organizations to account for all their
activities (Grandison & Bhatti, 2010). The health care organizations
have to disclose all vital data in the form of detailed reports for the
purpose of auditing. However, the shortage of health workers often
makes it difficult for health care administrators to meet this
requirement of HIPAA. The administrators are more involved in
administrative operations in the health care setting. In addition to
their administrative tasks, preparing such detailed reporting can
prove to be difficult or challenging.
Another type of health care shortage that affects the effective
implementation of federal rulings such as HIPAA and HITECH is the
lack of sufficient financial resources. A number of health care
organizations in the rural areas, as well as the developing countries,
do not have access to adequate financial resources. This prevents the
organizations from scaling up their health interventions or
implementing the different federal rulings. The Health Information
Technology for Economic and Critical Health ACT or the HITECH Act
provides incentives to the health care providers for making use of
the electronic health record (EHR) systems (Mennemeyer et al.,
2016). It aims at enhancing the overall health care outcomes for
patients in the health care setting. However, the lack of financial
resources limits the health care administrators from implementing
electronic health record systems. This, in turn, makes it difficult for
them to meet the requirements of federal rulings like the HITECH
Act. The lack of health workers also significantly affects the
implementation of the HER systems in the health care setting.
Addressing the health care shortages with appropriate strategies and
measures can help in the effective implementation of the federal
rulings.
References
Grandison, T., & Bhatti, R. (2010). HIPAA compliance and patient
privacy protection. In MEDINFO 2010 (pp. 884-888). IOS Press.
Mennemeyer, S. T., Menachemi, N., Rahurkar, S., & Ford, E. W.
(2016). Impact of the HITECH act on physicians’ adoption of
electronic health records. Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association, 23(2), 375-379.
Jensen, N. (2013). The health worker crisis: an analysis of the issues
and main international responses. London: Health Poverty Action.
