This person is trained in the legal procedures for release of PHI. There are three ways that PHI, in electronic form, is protected in a facility, they are; Administrative Safeguards, Physical Safeguards, and Technical Safeguards. These make up the functional framework for protecting health information. These are mandated by the Security Rule of HIPAA. The medical office specialist needs to understand the roles that these safeguards play in the office environment.…
HIPAA was created in 1996 in order for Covered Entities (Health plan, health care clearing houses and health care provider) to protect and secure a person’s private health information (PHI). Its main focus is to eradicate worker discrimination due pre-existing conditions. Nonetheless, HIPAA concentrated on the implementation of a distributed electronic system to improve administrative transactions among covered entities. However, early stages of HIPAA provisions left many gaps opened. As an example: HIPPA did not specify how information should be protected; what methods, rules or standard needed to be enforced.…
HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules benefit and support the integrity of the healthcare industry, patient, and physician by setting a standard on how the healthcare industry protects patient information when the files are stored and transferred electronically. This is the Security Rule. This rule sets technical and non-technical safeguards called “covered entities”. ("Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule | HHS.gov," n.d.) when the office stays within the standards and complies with the regulations then the integrity of maintaining privacy stays intact.…
Describe the responsibility of the medical office specialist to protect all protected health information (PHI). When it comes to protecting patient information, it’s about getting employees to understand how to best protect it and what to do if there is a data breach. Training is essential and should include not only administrative employees, like medical office specialist, but also doctors, nurses, and other clinicians throughout the organization. All employees with access to patient information need to have the understanding of how to maintain security protocols when it comes to patient care. Many clinicians tend to look at PHI breaches as simply an IT issue.…
The rules, regulations and penalties are in place to help safeguard a patients PHI, ensure standard procedures for coding, establish all provides utilize NPI’s and inform the patient on how their information will be utilized. I feel the overall concept of HIPAA serves as a great building block on protecting PHI. However, it with the age of technology, no PHI is fully protected. PHI holds a gold mine of information for anyone who can breach a security system or perform an unethical act.…
Secured Health Information (PHI) must be encoded all the time. -Every remedial expert approved to get access to and convey PHI must have a "one of a kind User Identifier" so that it is…
“Widespread meaningful use of fully functional electronic health records (EHRs) combined with a robust infrastructure for broad-base health information exchange can improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare for all Americans” (Blumenthal, 2010). The EHR is an effective communication system that is designed to improve quality care and patient outcome by providing updated information on the patient. The functions of the EHR to include Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) and Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) are the backbone of the health care delivery system. Healthcare organizations must embrace implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) is a system that allows providers to enter medical orders and instructions for treatment of patients.…
The use of CPOE has increased extensively since the enactment of the HITECH Act of 2009. A few goals of the CPOE use were “Reducing the potential for human error, reducing time to care delivery, improving order accuracy, making crucial information more readily available, improving communication among physicians, nurses, pharmacists, other clinicians and patients” (Steele & Debrow, 2008). An abundant amount of studies have been conducted to review the positive or negative outcomes of computerized physician order entry. In the article Efficiency Gains with Computerized Provide Order Entry, the turnaround times (TATs) were measured and analyzed for laboratory, radiology and pharmacy.…
Conclusion: This review depicts, that both electronic health records and paper health records have vulnerabilities that have the potential to compromise patient data security. There are many who argue that the paper health records are more secure than the electronic health records. While electronic health records have their security vulnerabilities and have been more prevalent in the news, paper health records are not much more secure. Patient data security breaches in paper health records were not publicized as much as the electronic health records, because there is no way of knowing that they exist in order to report…
Two such companies providing PHR solutions are General Electric’s (GE), Patient Online 13 and Microsoft’s, HealthVault (Vecchione, 2012). Some qualities any selected PHR should possess include: • Security: information should be encrypted point to point and require trusted user authentication methods. This will not only comply with regulations but also allow patients a greater level of trust. • Usability…
Some of the components involved with the HIPAA Security Rule applies to health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and to any healthcare provider that transmits health information in an electronic form (HHS.org). These entities are affected and applied under the HIPAA Security Rule. The information that is protected includes individual health information in which “an entity creates, receives, maintains or transmits health records in the electronic form” (HHS.org). There are three fundamental areas that the HIPAA Security Rule address in which include technical safeguards, physical safeguards, and administrative safeguards. Technical safeguards must be implemented in order for electronic health information to be properly and safely transmitted.…
Electronic Medication Administration Records Affect on Patient Safety In today’s society it is excepted to receive exemplary quality care when admitted to a healthcare facility. This means that the patient is to receive safe and effective care from the nurse and interdisciplinary health care team, with the goal of obtaining positive patient outcomes. These goals can be partially obtained with the use of the advancements in information technology. Information technology has the potential to increase patient safety, improve continuity of care, and change the way healthcare is delivered (Moreland, Gallagher, Bena, Morrison, & Albert, 2012).…
The intent of the certification program was to provide a form of consumer protection to prospective purchasers of EHRs, ensuring that EHRs were capable of meeting meaningful-use requirements. The HITECH Act tasked the ONC and the HITPC with studying technical and policy approaches to improving the security and privacy of electronic health information. Developing such solutions will probably require a multifaceted strategy that involves technical, educational, legal, and policy interventions by many public and private stakeholders. For example, most breaches of security in health information systems result from simple human error or carelessness, not from technical failings or outside hacking. The difficulty of using current EHRs constitutes a major potential barrier to their adoption and meaningful use.…
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) “is a large set of health care regulation and standards that protect the privacy of patients’ medical records and other personal health information. “HIPAA is broad in scope; covers a whole host of health care providers, facilities, and entities; and has had sweeping implications for the health care industry” Pointer, 2006). The HIPAA Privacy regulations require health care providers and companies, including their business partners, to follow and develop the course of action that assure the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) when it is sent, accepted, managed, or shared. All this are need to be applied to all forms of PHI, including paper, oral, and electronic, etc. In addition, the regulation also increases the purchaser controls, the use and disclosure of individual medical information.…
HIPAA Security and Privacy: Cases and Scenarios Brittany Stewart Herzing University Dr. Gary J. Hanney Abstract HIPAA security and privacy is an important aspect of healthcare delivery. Government influences greatly how legal issues are addressed in healthcare, including non-governmental entities. This essay will explain how the HIPAA privacy rule should be applied appropriately with protected health information.…