What is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)?
It is a federal law put forward to create national standards about protecting sensitive information shared by patients. The health information from a patient should not be shared without their consent (Edemekong & Haydel, 2020). The HIPAA was initiated by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They issued the privacy rule to be adopted by HIPAA. Also, the Department identified the kind of information to be covered in the Privacy Rule. In essence, the Act was meant to ensure the privacy of the patients is protected.
What are the primary goals of HIPPA?
HIPAA was enacted to help accomplish two main goals. The first goal is to limit the use of protected information. Several parties may have an interest in the information held by insurance firms and health firms. Under the Act, they do not have express authority to share that information to any person who needs it (Edemekong & Haydel, 2020). Another goal HIPAA sought to fulfill is to introduce clauses that penalize entities that violate confidentiality regulations. That is essential in discouraging unnecessary disclosure of personal health information.
What are the two primary circumstances in which a covered entity, such as a physician, may disclose protected health information?
Even though the Act restricts the holders of the information from sharing it, there are exceptions where they may share it without prior consent by the owner. One of the instances where that disclosure can happen is when required by the law (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n. d.). For example, the health information may be related to a criminal act, and the court may require it for use. Another circumstance where protected information is likely to be disclosed is in supporting health activities. For instance, the information may be required to carry out further research to understand certain variables.
Provide one example of how a covered entity, such as a hospital or physician, could violate HIPPA laws.
One possible case where a hospital or physician may violate the HIPAA laws is when electronically transferring health information to unauthorized third parties (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n. d.). For example, a physician may disclose the details of a patient attended to when making a payment claim.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n. d.). Public Health Professionals Gateway: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html
Edemekong, P. F. & Haydel, M. J. (2020). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK500019/