Question

2. Explain why confidentiality of health information has been a controversial public policy issue.

Answer 1

Answer : patient confidentiality is one of the most important pillars of the medicine .protecting the private details of the patient is not a just matter of moral respect ,it is essential in retaining the important bond of trust between the health care provider and client .

- maitainace of confidentiality is the fundamental right of every client .

- during the past 2 years ,the health information privacy of nearly 18 million american has been breached electronicallu due to loss of trust among the patients and they are getting confusion about whom they really giving their health information.

- some of the legislative acts such as HIPAA ,HITECH are playing important role in the maintainance of confidentiality of patient health information .

- according to NAIC ,it is prohibited to disclose the health information without individual authorization except for the claiming of the bills such as pharmacy bills,radiology bills and other clinical management bills to insurance functioning.

- there will be a controvercy in sharing of health information electronically due to various reasons such as

• Lack of the security.
• lack of control over the modifying accessing and sharing of electronic devices such as hard ware systems .
• presence of legislative gaps to protect the health information of the individuals .
• there is no over the patients.
• lack of trust among the people to disclose the information due to facing of life threatening censequences .
• due to lack of the security over the health informations ,most of the americans are not coming forward to access the health care through the electronic health policies .
• There is no protection for health information because of helth information system .