Question

Discuss social media privacy breaches or HIPPA violations made by nurses or healthcare workers over the last 5 years. (a) What were the ethical and legal implications? (b) What penalties were imposed and by whom (Courts, Board of Nursing etc.…)? 300 words

Answer 1

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountabilty Act of 1996 establishes national standards to protect individuals medical records and other personal health information and applies to health plans, health care clearing houses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.

Some of the violationa are

1. Hospital staff disclosed HIV testing concerning a patient in the waiting room, staff were required to take regular HIPAA trainings, and computer monitors were repositioned.
2. offer manager accidentally faxed confidential medical records to an employer rather than a urologists office, resulting in a stern warning letter and a mandate for regular HIPAA training for all employees.
3. Surgeon fired after illegally accessing personal records of celebrities, fined $2000 and 4 months in jail.
4. Private practice lost an unencrypted flash drive containing protected health information, fined $150,000 and required to install a corrective action plan.
5. Private physician license suspended for submitting patient bill's to collection firms with CPT codes that revealed patient dianosis.
6. Texas hospital employee received an 18- month jail term for wrongful disclosure of private patient medical information.
7. Virginia employees fired for logging into medical files without legitimate medical need.

ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

1. Clinical Care effect - HIPAA, combined with staff penalities for violation, may result in medical centers and practices withholding life saving information from those who may have a right to it and need it at a crucial moment.
2. Education and training effect - effective training should be provided to the students regarding the regulations and puposes of HIPAA and also provide review of the principles and key provisions of the Privacy Rule.
3. Research Effects - HIPAA have affected the ability to perform chart based retrospective research. this is very challenging in evaluating patients prospectively for follow- up. HIPAA Privacy rules resulted in drop in the follow up surveys completed by patients who are on long- term care. overall it has a negative impact on the cost and quality of medical research.
4. Costs - the cost of developing and revamping systems and an increase in paperwork and staff education time have impacted the finances of medical centers and practices at a time when insurances companies and Medicare reimbursements have decreased.

PENALTIES IMPOSED

Civil

• For an individual who unknowingly violates - $100 fine per violation with annual maximum of $ 25,000 for tjose who repeats violation.
• For a violation that is dur to a reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect - $1000 charge / violation, an annual maximum of $100,000 for those who repeatedly violates.
• For violation due to willful neglect, with violation corrected within the required time period- $10,000 penalty per violation, an annual maximum of $250,000 for repeat violation
• For willful neglect and not corrected- $50, 000 per violation, an annual maximum of $1,000,000.

Criminal

• For entities that are covered and specified individuals who obtain or disclose individually identifiable helath information willfully and knowingly- penalty is upto $50,000 and imprisonment upto 1 year.
• For offenses committed under false pretenses, the penalty is up to $100,000 with imprisonment up to 5 years.
• For offenses committed with the intent to sell, transfer, or use individually identifiable health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm, the penalty is up to $250,000 with imprisonment up to 10 years.