Term Paper on HIPAA
HIPAA is the acronym for the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA is
responsible for health insurance coverage for workers and their
families, especially when the worker changes or looses their jobs.
President Clinton signed this on August 21, 1996. It was considered
a Public Law 104-191. To decrease the organizational costs of health
care a separate section is included in the law. It is required by
the law that all health plans, including ERISA, healthcare
clearinghouses and any dentist who transmits health information in
an electronic transaction are required by HIPAA to use a standard
electronic device.
Order
your custom term papers, research papers and college essays
The federal law, known as HIPAA legislation was enacted on August
21, 1996 and the Congress did this. It was an endeavor to encourage
the development of health information systems. This system was to
enable the electronic exchange of health care information. The
Department of Health and Human Services was asked to develop
regulations for the use of electronic transaction standards,
security, privacy, and uniform identification numbers for
physicians, health plans and purchasers of health care and so on.
Some of these regulations are published while some are still in the
draft form.
The health care industry is steadily moving to base patient records
and the delivery of health care information. For all these
information the use of computer networks has heightened concerned
about the security of that information. Since the networking
technology is becoming more common with every passing of the day,
therefore it has also very necessary to implement safeguards to
protect the privacy of patient data through employing adequate
security technology into the network infrastructures. According to
Cisco Systems health car industry has the highest percentage o
Internet vulnerabilities. For example the vulnerability found in
health care Web servers is 61.07 % if we compare this percentage
with other industries, we found only 27.37%, which is an alarming
situation for the health care industry. According to Cisco expert
this vulnerability has occurred due to sharing of information. The
health care industry was very much apprehensive about the network
security and now the government has understood the importance of
protecting patients’ privacy. The government has developed health
care privacy and security legislation.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1966
propose a set of standards and it tries to regulate the electronic
interchange of health information. It also protects the
confidentiality and security of electronic health information.
Virtually all segments of health care is covered by this
legislature. Any information about health care, which is transmitted
electronically, is covered by this legislature. One of the main
purposes of HIPAA is to help the Congress and the US Department of
Health and Human Services to develop and enact the regulations
regarding the maintenance and transmission of health information
regarding very patient.
Order
your custom term papers, research papers and college essays
It is almost impossible to integrate all the components of security
like administrative procedures, physical safeguards, technical
security services etc. HIPAA gave a little bit new definition to the
security system:
1. The standard should be scalable or in other words all sizes of
health care entities would comply with the standard.
2. The standard should be comprehensive, i.e. the security system
should act as a unified system. It should not act as piecemeal
products that do not communicate with each other.
3. It should be technology-neutral i.e. specific security technology
should not be referred or advocated. It should be kept in mind that
technology is constantly evolving.
To protect the reliability, privacy and availability of electronic
health date, HIPAA recommends several requirements that should be
incorporated in the final health care security standard.
According to HIPAA the first preference should be given to
administrative procedures. Security measures to protect data and the
conduct of personal in relation to the protection of date should
have proper training. The access to computer systems and facilities
should be restricted for any unauthorized person. The use of locks,
keys and administrative should be employed. Security measure should
also be made to protect the equipments from fire, environmental
hazards and physical intrusion.
The health care industry's steady move to electronic-based patient
records and the delivery of health care information using computer
networks has heightened concerns about the security of that
information. With the proliferation of networking technology in
health care, the need to implement safeguards to protect the privacy
of patient data is paramount. However, many health care
organizations have been reluctant to incorporate adequate security
technology into their network infrastructures. According to
observations made by Cisco Systems security consultants while
conducting security posture assessments of health care
organizations, the health care industry has the highest percentage
of Internet vulnerabilities. For example, health care Web servers
are found vulnerable 61.07 percent of the time, while the average
throughout other industries is 27.37 percent. The Cisco consultants
noted the common concern among health care organizations that
security presents obstacles to sharing information.
Order
your custom term papers, research papers and college essays
The network technologies have enabled many facilities to the health
care industries. It has helped enhance services, it has made
possible to greater access to information and higher level of
availability. As a result the customers have found increased
satisfaction. Though other industries have easily adopted
internetworking technologies but health care industry can be cited
as the prime example, which benefited this technology.
Electronic health or e-health has become very popular in the recent
days. They have found out the use of computer networking improves
the efficiency of their operations. This technology has provided for
the first time the ability to the physicians to practice medicine
remotely and to assess patients in isolated location via the
Internet. This kind of treatment is called telemedicine. Since every
data and condition has to travel form one end to the other therefore
complete secrecy is required. Through the application of HIPAA, such
fear will not arise and all the date of the patient will be in a
safe technology, where no one will be able to break it.
Information technology has proved its
worth and has shown its potential for improving health care in the
United States. The equipment or the hardware and software is not
that much that a hospital would find it difficult to put in its
budget. A fully loaded computer, an Internet connection and software
to run the health program is needed. The main part is to protect the
records of the patients, which will be transmitted from one computer
to another and from one doctor to another doctor. After digitizing
the records of the patients, these information are linked to an
Internet. Now physicians, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists and other
users who may use this information in different parts of the country
or even world can easily retrieve this information. Sometimes small
information becomes so critical that the life of a patient is saved
due to that information.
When medical records and information technology meet with each
other, a very big question of privacy arises. If the record falls
into the wrong hands, what would happen to the patient? How can us
safe the records from the hackers. As we know that quality health
care is dependent on quality information and the procurement of
information is becoming very risky every day.
We know that every problem has a solution, it might be complete or
incomplete, but still there is a hope. On the technical side, health
care organizations can use security technologies such as passwords,
access controls, firewalls and encryption etc. These will protect
data that is stored in enterprise computers. To be on the safe side
they should be trained so that they may understand the use of
security technologies.
Order
your custom term papers, research papers and college essays
|
