You work in a hospital compliance department. A patient who was recently discharged from the hospital comes into the office to report that he believes his health information was disclosed without his authorization to his employer. Assume that he was not hospitalized for a work-related injury. What options can you offer to him for making a complaint? Suppose that the information was disclosed by a nurse employed by the hospital. What practices should the hospital have in place for complaint investigation and discipline?
Make sure to fully answer the questions, follow APA format for citing your source(s), and include an introduction and conclusion. Your essay should be at least 5 paragraph
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The consequences of Health Care violations Under the Provisions of the HIPAA
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The consequences of Health Care violations Under the Provisions of the HIPAA
With high technological innovations, the healthcare system has grown to become one of the most regulated systems in the United States. Regulations are put in place to ensure that healthcare professionals comply with the rules and regulations to safeguard the patient information, the agreeable standards of patent’s care are adhered to, and curb the increase in health care frauds. Over time these policies and regulations have undergone numerous amendments to suit their intended purpose. The main laws dealing with health care information protection are the HIPAA, the Health Insurance portability act enacted to deal with security and privacy breaches when dealing with health care information (Rouse, 2017). This paper discusses patient health information privacy breaches and the relevant practices to discipline the medical practitioner responsible for the breach.
Following privacy violations of patient information to his employer without his consent, the patient has the right to launch a complaint against the nurse to the hospital compliance department. This will be followed by necessary disciplinary action on the nurse. The patient is advised to sue the nurse against the violations of the provisions of the HIPAA Act rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountably Act (HIPPA) was enacted in 1996 to safeguard medical information, especially the Protected Health Information (PHI), and ensure the appropriate use of informational while protecting confidentiality, security, and transmissibility of PHIs. The HIPAA privacy provisions require that all health care providers protect the confidentiality of this information and et the limits for the disclosure and use of the information unless the patient’s authorization (Rouse, 2017).
Regarding the confidentiality violation, the patient is within the jurisdictional right to launch a complaint following the patient’s PHI disclosure without his or her authorization to his employer. The PHI includes the patient’s name, medical records, diagnosis, treatment plan, or medical coverage. In this case, both the nurse and the facility are responsible for this breach. While most patients prefer this information kept confidential, some medical practitioners fail to uphold the client’s confidentiality status unless of a few legal exceptions (Wilburn, 2018). The medical practitioner violates the HIPAA privacy rule of disclosing the patient’s information without their consent and must face the law’s consequences. This could either be fines of up to $250,000 or serve time of up to 10 years or both; in extremes cases, it could lead to a consequential dismissal for violating the Act’s provisions. (Shenoy, 2017)
The hospital should be held liable for the privacy violations since their nurse is working in the hospital that failed to comply with the Act’s provisions. These violations can cost the facilities and practitioner’s tens of thousands of dollars in fines; therefore, it is imperative not to run afoul of the Act’s provisions to protect the employer, patient’s privacy, and career (Tariq, 2019). However, before undertaking the cause of action or any disciplinary action, the employers in this have to understand the possibility of such a violation. Still, it is impotent to ascertain if the violation was accidental or with intent. Nurses have restricted access to patient’s information; therefore have the responsibility to safeguard the information to avoid violating the patient’s privacy rights. Even unintentional violations can jeopardize a patient’s confidentiality and trust with both the facility and the practitioner.
Conclusion
The healthcare fraternity is faced with many medical violations that can either be committed to inadvertently or intentionally; therefore, laws are enacted to reprimand those that violate the HIPAA laws. Each medical practitioner must understand the acts’ provisions to avoid falling victims and lead to detrimental consequences. Medical practitioners spend years building patient trust; therefore, it is their responsibility to safeguard it by protecting their health care information from potential violations. Adhering to the HIPAA provisions ensure that these practitioners are on the right side of the law without violating the provisions that could lead to dire consequences such as fines or termination.
References
Rouse, M. (2017). HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
Shenoy, A., & Appel, J. M. (2017). Safeguarding confidentiality in electronic health records. Cambridge Q. Healthcare Ethics, 26, 337.
Tariq, R. A., & Hackert, P. B. (2019). Patient Confidentiality.
Wilburn, A. (2018). Nursing informatics: Ethical considerations for adopting electronic records. NASN School Nurse, 33(3), 150-153.
