Historical basis (what are the circumstances from which the challenge arises? how did it come to be of importance in the health industry?)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed on August 21, 1996. Its primary goals were to make health care delivery more efficient and to increase the number of Americans with health insurance coverage, especially those who lost or were between jobs. Initially there were three main provisions of the Act: the portability provisions, the tax provisions, and the administrative simplification provisions. With technologies rapidly advancing, the administrative simplification provisions of HIPAA instructed the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to …show more content…
What systems and technologies are or could be leveraged?)
In today’s day and age, it is no surprise that technology plays a major role in the communication between individuals, even those in the health industry. With a variety of methods used to interconnect with one another, for example text messages, emails, and social media, it is imperative that HIPAA Privacy Rules are followed to ensure that all methods used protect the patients’ health information. Communication technology is quickly evolving and though there are benefits, there are also several challenges.
With new advances in technology, employees are now bringing and utilizing their own devices in the workplace. This can present a challenge because it is not guaranteed the employee may follow the policies and procedures for using his or her own device. PHI can also be accessed on unsecure networks. Wireless network access and monitoring is extremely important for healthcare entities because without a secure network, systems can be breached at any time resulting in negative effects on the patient as well thousands of dollars in fines for the individuals involved. Unfortunately the structural limitations of transforming older facilities to support wireless access can be an expensive …show more content…
The amount of data and length of time the data must be stored as required by HITECH Act and Data Retention Laws must be followed. If on multiple devices, company or personal, information can be stored in different places and can potentially be inaccurate when it is time to be audited. These threats can quickly exceed existing storage capacity. Possible solutions to storage issues are monitoring the devices used and having virtualized storage in storage area networks with data replication. Storing information to “The Cloud” raises concerns about data encryption, ownership, HIPAA compliance and overall security; however, many systems and products have been created to ensure proper storage of
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed on August 21, 1996. Its primary goals were to make health care delivery more efficient and to increase the number of Americans with health insurance coverage, especially those who lost or were between jobs. Initially there were three main provisions of the Act: the portability provisions, the tax provisions, and the administrative simplification provisions. With technologies rapidly advancing, the administrative simplification provisions of HIPAA instructed the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to …show more content…
What systems and technologies are or could be leveraged?)
In today’s day and age, it is no surprise that technology plays a major role in the communication between individuals, even those in the health industry. With a variety of methods used to interconnect with one another, for example text messages, emails, and social media, it is imperative that HIPAA Privacy Rules are followed to ensure that all methods used protect the patients’ health information. Communication technology is quickly evolving and though there are benefits, there are also several challenges.
With new advances in technology, employees are now bringing and utilizing their own devices in the workplace. This can present a challenge because it is not guaranteed the employee may follow the policies and procedures for using his or her own device. PHI can also be accessed on unsecure networks. Wireless network access and monitoring is extremely important for healthcare entities because without a secure network, systems can be breached at any time resulting in negative effects on the patient as well thousands of dollars in fines for the individuals involved. Unfortunately the structural limitations of transforming older facilities to support wireless access can be an expensive …show more content…
The amount of data and length of time the data must be stored as required by HITECH Act and Data Retention Laws must be followed. If on multiple devices, company or personal, information can be stored in different places and can potentially be inaccurate when it is time to be audited. These threats can quickly exceed existing storage capacity. Possible solutions to storage issues are monitoring the devices used and having virtualized storage in storage area networks with data replication. Storing information to “The Cloud” raises concerns about data encryption, ownership, HIPAA compliance and overall security; however, many systems and products have been created to ensure proper storage of