Question

Workplace Applications Using the knowledge you obtained from the chapter, provide narrative answers to the following cases. 1. You are the privacy officer for your practice, and a new employee complains to you about the excessive HIPAA training she is enduring. What can you tell this employee about why such training is necessary? 2. As you're walking toward the lunchroom, you pass a com- puter that has a patient's health information displayed from the EHR. You are able to clearly see a list of the patient's med ications. What safety measures can the office take to prevent such unintentional disclosure of PHI? 3. Juliette Zimmerman is the volunteer coach of the high school cheerleading team. The team has earned a spot at nationals, but one of her flyers is injured and will not be able to partic- ipate. Juliette has just given an interview to a local reporter in which she made mention of this, including the girl's name. Juliette's husband, a physician, tells her that she has violated HIPAA. Is he correct? 4. You work in a psychiatry practice, and many of your patients with health insurance prefer to pay cash to protect their pri- vacy. If a patient does submit a mental health claim, in what circumstances might that information be disclosed to a third party without the patient's authorization? How might this practice of paying "off the grid" affect public mental health services? 5. You work in a urology practice, and a 51-year-old married patient, Mr. Ratner, undergoes a vasectomy because he does not wish to have any more children. He confides to the phy- sician that he's concerned his mistress may become pregnant. He has the procedure performed while his wife is out of town, and he requests that information about the vasectomy not be disclosed to her under any circumstances. Does Mrs. Ratner

Answer 1

1.Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).It is a federal Act of the country.The most crucial of the patient rights is confidentiality of their information.So I would explain to the new employee that the information and records of the patient should be protected as it is sensitive information.So excessive HIPAA training is necessary.HIPAA guidelines should be followed if they are violated they undergo legal issues.

2.Personal Health Information is crucial and it should be protected and violation of this is punishable offence.Safety measure includes one should never leave portable devices unattended,it should be password protected.

3.Because Juliette released confidential information about her player.As her health information is confidential and julliette violated HIPPAA guidelines.