Question

10:09 2D Write 10 page paper on "How HIPAA Laws Impact healthcare and its implications on Nurses". Explaining why this topic is relevant, why is this topic interesting, who is affected by the issue, examples of differing perspective on the issue, what is the plan of developing this paper, what are the sources and strategies to locate the sources.

Answer 1

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA Privacy Rule compliance was enforced in April 2003 by the Office of Civil Rights. It establishes national standards to protect an individual's health information, civil and criminal penalties exist for non-compliance.

Under HIPAA:

-Patient can request a copy of the medical record
- Patient must receive notification of privacy rights
- Patient must authorize the release of information
- The institution may use and disclose information for treatment, payment, and health care operations without authorization
- Use of data in research requires deidentification or patient authorization

Access to medical records is limited to:

- Treatment
- Quality Assurance
- Utilization Review
- Education
- Research

Every nurse understands and respects the need for patient confidentiality. As professionals, our connection to our patients and our colleagues depends on it. But, the truth is, advanced technology, new demands in health care, and developments in the world-at-large, make it more and more difficult to keep this promise.

The privacy portion of the new law limits those who may have access to a patient’s health information and how it may be used. Hospitals and providers may use this information only for treatment, obtaining payment for care, and for specified operational purposes like improving quality of care. They must inform patients in writing of how their health data will be used; establish systems to track disclosure; and allow patients to review, obtain copies, and amend their own health information.

HIPAA established standards and requirements for the electronic transmission of certain health information (eligibility requirements, referrals to other physicians, and health claims)(American Hospital Association, 2002). HIPAA protects a patient’s rights to the confidentiality of his/her medical information and, for the first time, creates federal civil and criminal penalties for improper use or disclosure of protected health information.

Establishing and maintaining patients’ trust in their caregivers is critical to obtaining a complete history, an accurate health record, and carrying out an effective treatment plan. If a nurse fails to protect the patient’s privacy, the erosion in the relationship can have dire consequences to the nurse/patient relationship.

Nurses are frequently put in the tenuous position of being asked for patient information by patient’s families and well-wishers.

A key patient safety initiative is better-improved labeling of drugs and devices. IV bags and medicines are now routinely labeled with the patient’s name, a step we take to assure we are delivering the right care to the right patient.

The consumer can access almost anything on the Internet today. Sophisticated search engines enable us to find everything ever written about any person or topic. Equally sophisticated efforts must be made by health care providers to prevent unauthorized access to patient information.

Knowing the difference between privacy and confidentiality can be confusing. Privacy is the right of individuals to keep information about themselves from being disclosed; that is, people (our patients) are in control of others access to themselves or information about themselves. Patients decide who, when, and where to share their health information. On the other hand, confidentiality is how we, as nurses, treat private information once it has been disclosed to others or ourselves. This disclosure of information usually results from a relationship of trust; it assumes that health information is given with the expectation that it will not be divulged except in ways that have been previously agreed upon, e.g., for treatment, for payment of services, or for use in monitoring the quality of care that is being delivered. With the increasing use of technology for the provision of care in our fast-paced clinical environments, maintaining privacy and confidentiality can be a daunting task.

• Communication with family members – always keeps the patient’s best interest in mind. This may translate into adequately informing long-distance family members so they are able to properly respond and support elderly or demented parent’s needs. Verify identity as legal guardian or executor, if necessary.
• Never assume you have the right to look at any type of health information unless you need it in order to do your job. HIPAA assumes there is a need-to-know. For example, co-workers’ phone numbers for personal reasons may be looked up by the interested party on the Internet or the phone book. Phone numbers needed for work-related reasons may be obtained from the supervisor or the employee database if you have been authorized for access. Always ask yourself, "Do I need-to-know this information?" Need-to-Know is defined as that which is necessary for one to adequately perform one's specific job responsibilities.
• Hold your colleagues as accountable as you hold yourself when it comes to respecting patient privacy. When you see a nurse or physician carrying progress notes on their tray in the cafeteria for others to see, gently and politely remind them to turn them over in the name of confidentiality. When you are hearing a conversation between two care providers in the elevator or the hospital shuttle, politely ask them to please continue their discussion in a private area.
• Be a privacy mentor to nursing students just starting out in the profession. For example, keep medical records closed on desktops, close out results on computer screens, send out text paging with minimum necessary information (last name first initial), restrict excessive printing of health information from computers, restrict the removal of all copies of health information from the hospital, even if reports have been de-identified.
• Stand up to peer pressure when friends or neighbors ask you to do a favor by obtaining for them copies of their records or copies of a family member’s records. Always get written authorization and follow proper procedure. In many organizations, failure to follow proper procedures regarding release of information may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment or suspension of privileges.