HIPAA Privacy Laws

An overview of the privacy guidelines of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) legislation and their ramifications for physicians.

1,411 words () | 6 sources | APA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rules seek to better protect the rights of patients and improve healthcare organizational efficiency in the ultimate interests of the public good. The paper explores the implications of these laws for health care organizations and physicians and goes on to highlight the problems in these rules' application. The paper also illustrates how the privacy rules can interfere with physicians' ability to communicate with patients and to obtain necessary information about patients. Other challenges that arise in the application of the regulations are also noted and the assertion made that the regulations need to be complemented with adaptive legislation that mandates to the practical realities of healthcare.

From the Paper:

"The Privacy Guidelines of the HIPAA legislation that were signed into effect in 2003 have dominated health and humans services culture from the time of their inception April 3rd. A myriad of journal articles have been written by physicians whose professions and callings are directly affected in the field by the law, and those opinions are widely augmented by medical professionals and scholars. Further, the text wording of HIPAA guidelines is available online, as well as specific reaction from different stations of the health care provision chain, from patients to insurance representatives to social workers as well as the government officials entrusted with implementing and enforcing the privacy laws which they have passed according to HIPAA. Health and human services is a social initiative, but there is clearly a lot of legal and bureaucratic red tape in the way, and inherent challenges from the language of the law that manifest in application."

Sample of Sources Used:

The Cost of HIPAA violations. (2008). Retrieved November 8, 2008: http://www.infinisource.net/news/stories/hipaa12.asp
Frequently asked questions about the HIPAA privacy rules (2008). Retrieved November 8, 2008: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/11567.html#g7
Hall, Mark A., Sharona Hoffman, and Richard Sobel. "The HIPAA headache.(letters)(Letter to the editor)." The Hastings Center Report 38.1 (Jan-Feb 2008): 7(2).
Sataloff, Robert T. "HIPAA: an impediment to research.(EDITORIAL)." Ear, Nose and Throat Journal 87.4 (April 2008): 182(2).
SUMMARY OF THE HIPAA PRIVACY RULE. (2008) Retrieved November 8, 2008: www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.pdf