Question

Briefly describe the impact that engaging in risk-related personal health behavior (e.g., tobacco use, risky drinking, diet, and physical activity) has on and individual, the population health status and on health care costs in the United States.

What is one way that the HIPAA Patient Privacy rule helps address patient privacy? Discuss at least one approach health care organizations use to help secure patient privacy.

All patients and providers want security. Organizations can approach security with a goal of being “perfectly secure” or being “good enough”. Is it possible to be perfectly secure? Why or why not?

Answer 1

1.Tobacco use contributes to about 75% of all cancers. Tobacco may act synergistic-ally with other substances such as alcohol, asbestos, uranium and viruses to promote cancer development. Tobacco use may be one of the strongest risk factor in development of atherosclerotic lesions .Nicotine reduces blood flow to extremities and increases heart rate and blood pressure by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system.,causing vasoconstriction. It also increases the risk for clot formation by increasing aggregation of platelets. Carbon monoxide , a toxin produced by burning tobacco , combines readily with hemoglobin than oxygen , depriving oxygen to tissues. According to CDC,  it is estimated about 40 million US adults still smoke cigarettes. Nearly 4.7 million middle and high school students is at risk of using atleast one tobacco product. A study has come out with a result that in a day ,more than 3,800 youth less than 18 years smoke their first cigarette. It is said about half a million Americans die because of smoking or by being a passive smoker. Around 16 million fight against serious effects of smoking. The United States spends nearly $170 billion on medical care to treat smoking-related disease in adults.

Dietary substances can be proactive ,carcinogenic.Dietary substances associated with an increased cancer risk include fats ,alcohol, salt cured or smoked meats, foods containing nitrates & nitrites and a high caloric dietary intake. Obesity results from dietary pattern disturbances and lack of physical activity leading to endometrial cancer and post menopausal breast cancers in women ,and also cancers of colon, kidney , gallbladder in both genders. Abnormal blood fat levels (dyslipidemia) may occur due to changes in dietary pattern. Amount of irncreased starch and sugar in diet may lead to decaying tooth. Low fiber diet, irregular eating habits, leads to hardened stools .Disorders caused by nutritional deficiency , over eating, or eating poorly balanced diet are among leading causes of illness and death in United States today.

Alcohol consumption leads to heart diseases, stroke, liver diseases, unintended pregnancies, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, accidents, injuries, neurological problems and mental health problems.Excessive alcohol use found to caused 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2010 were estimated at $249 billion, or $2.05 a drink(CDC).

2.HIPAA(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act )privacy rule is made to protect individuals' medical information and other personal health information.There are four important qualities of HIPAA that make it a necessity for patients.They are privacy of health information of patient, security of health data in the covered facility, notification of breaches of medical records, and at last the right to obtain copies of healthcare data whenever necessary.HIPAA privacy rule makes the hospitals to use electronic health records and also advices to update the software for securing patient health information in EHR. The HIPAA Privacy Rule restricts the healthcare providers who are able to view healthcare data of a patient and also restrict sharing of healthcare data without obtaining permission from patients. Without permission of patient no one should access the health care information of patients. So privacy of patient is safe and secure.

3. All patients and providers wants to be secure. But sometimes healthcare records cannot be safe for sure because of hackers who hack the hospital databases to use insurances or make money illegally. Regular updation of software for EHR is very necessary and no systems should be left with open account and individual health care workers should have access to their accounts with secured passwords.