Administrative Ethics

Administrative Ethics Paper

Administrative Ethics Paper

Confidentiality is a vital part of the healthcare industry. Healthcare professionals are required by law to comply with HIPAA laws and regulations. Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into law in 1996; ensuring that every individuals private health information is protected. According to "Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule" (2013), “The Rule strikes a balance that permits important uses of information, while protecting the privacy of people who seek care and healing. Given that the health care marketplace is diverse, the Rule is designed to be flexible and comprehensive to cover the variety of uses and disclosures that need to be addressed.” (2013). As technology advances, protecting patient’s private health information has become more difficult.

Earlier this year the HIPAA laws and regulations were revised making way for tougher legal scrutiny and higher fines for information breaches. Lubell (2013), “The rules not only expand the individual rights of patients but also tighten federal breach notification requirements under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009.” (2013). Previous regulations allowed the physician practice to notify any patient and the federal government of the breach only if it affected the patient financially and reputational. The article mentions that privacy advocates were concerned that the practice shouldn’t be able to determine whether or not there was an actual breach. The new law is much stricter requiring many official reports of the breach as well as more work and expenses to the practice. Lubell (2013), “Now any incident involving patient records is assumed to be a breach, and unless a practice conducts a risk assessment that proves a low probability that any protected information was compromised, the breach must be reported.” (2013).

Every person that works in the healthcare industry is...