Hipaa and the Case of Anne Pressley

HIPAA and the Case of Anne Pressley

HIPAA and the Case of Anne Pressly

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, otherwise known as HIPAA was passed by Congress in effort to assure confidentiality and protection of health information that may be obtained about an individual whether it is oral, written, or electronic in nature. Any violation of this act may result in lawsuits, fines, termination of employment and even imprisonment (Health Insurance and Accountability Act, 2012).

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was introduced and passed by Congress in 1996. This Act for several years now but it wasn’t well known until 2001 when it included the privacy rule. Since then HIPAA has become a more well-knownwell known term amongst health care workers and the public as well. HIPAA serves several purposes; one of the most common purposes of the act is that health care workers need to be aware of is the privacy rule. Essentially, this rule covers protected health information and the need-to-know of this information. This protected information shall be released only to facilitate payment of services, treatment of the patient, or other health care operations. Any other use of the information must have a signed release from the patient. This applies to information that could be passed on verbally, in writing, or even electronically. Any violation of this could result in a lawsuit, fines, termination of employment, and even imprisonment (Health Insurance and Accountability Act, 2012).

Health care facilities must assure that their staff receives initial and regular ongoing training to stay informed as to the requirements of HIPAA. The employees must also assure that they do not carry on conversations about patients or the care that they are receiving that could be overheard by the general public. All employees must treat patient information as if it were their very own and not share it with anyone that doesn’t have a...