Final

The Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act

I. Primary goals of HIPAA

a. Privacy Compliance

b. Data Integrity

c. …….

Outline should look like the above

II. One of the primary goals of the HIPAA is to make health insurance more affordable and as such, lower the cost of healthcare in the country (Chaikind,2004).

a) The act achieves this at the expense of hefty fines imposed in the case that the healthcare providers violate the privacy policy of the act, which is the most recognizable part of the HIPAA since its enactment in 2003 (Correa, 2011).

1. With the healthcare constantly checking their steps so as not to go against the law, the act might not be as good asit had been intended to be.It is especially so since the healthcare providers have to ensure that any information regarding the patient is given to a third party on the consent of the patient.

2. However tough it may seem to be, the act also aims at detecting and fighting fraud and abuse in the health industry (Hosford-Dunn &Roeser, 2007). The fines involved in the breach of the act bear testimony to this.

Need to clarify-you are talking issues but need to flush out goals if that is your category

III. The irony of the privacy policy of the HIPAA is the people that are allowed access to information regarding the patient’s health with ease may not be of much help to the patient.

a) Information regarding issues such as diagnosis with diseases that may be genetically transmitted should be useful to the family more than the hospital staff and the government (Asfaw, 2011).

1. The family of the patient should be allowed access to such information so as to know what action to take regarding the new discovery.

2. As such, the act has been faced with a lot of opposition from several bodies, among them medical researchers and lawyers. These groups of people are not against the whole HIPAA act.

3. The part that is of utmost concern is the clause pertaining to privacy of patient information.

IV. In addition to that, another problem with the act is that it has slowed down medical innovation.

a) The aim of medicine revolves around solving and preventing factors that cause stress to the body from attacking an individual (Neuman& Fawcett, 2002).

1. In the case that innovation is inhibited, prevention might be, as well, inhibited.

2. Medical research, which leads to innovation, involves the researchers developing some new knowledge, which may not be necessarily to the benefit of the patient (Eaton & Kennedy 2007).

3. The HIPAA act, however, does not allow this. This is one of the factors that makes the act be viewed as a hindrance to medical progressiveness in the country.

V. As such, the law may be good in terms of the fact that it allows for comparable health insurance coverage in the case that one changes the job (Roach, 2008), it also has its limitations that make the intended good appear as bad.

a) There is need for there to be amendments to the bill so as to make it more appealing and friendly.

1. The privacy policy is the one that needs some adjustments.

2. As per the discussion, there should be some changes made to the policy so exempt some people from the privacy.

b) The family members, for example should not be kept away from information regarding the patient.

1. In the case that the same is corrected, it would give a chance to researchers to analyze some patient information and, perhaps, come up with some preventive measures of controlling some diseases that are currently a radical problem in the country.

Good on the HIPAA but unclear about which problem you are addressing-need to clarify this in the final paper-see 4 and 5 below. Is it slowing down innovation-saw some info on this. What about the future. This isn’t a true outline need to review this. Good to see your research included. 48/60

1. What is the legislation/policy that will be analyzed in this paper?

2. What is the problem/issue that this legislation attempts to address?

3. What is the history of the legislation?

4. Has (or will) the legislation been effective in addressing the problem or issue?

5. What group(s) of people have been the most affected by the problem?

6. Is there any information on the future of this legislation? (Revision, obsolete, status of bill, etc)

References

AsfawE. (2011). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Confidentiality and Privacy from the Perspectives of the Consumer and the Physician. Michigan: Proquest.

Chaikind H. R. (2004). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Overview and Analyses. New York: Nova Biomedical

CorreaC. (2011) Getting Started in the Computerized Medical Office: Fundamentals and Practice. USA: Cengage learning.

Eaton M. L., KennedyD. (2007). Innovation in Medical Technology: Ethical Issues and Challenges. Maryland: John Hopkins University Press.

Hosford-Dunn H., RoeserR. J. (2007). AUDIOLOGY Practice Management New York: Thieme

Neuman, B., & Fawcett J. (2002). The Neuman systems model (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Roach Jr. W.H. (2008). Medical Records and the Law. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers