Information Technology Acts

Information Technology Acts

Kristy Andrews

BISS/220-Introduction to Computer Applications and Systems

March 4, 2013

Hany Saleeb PhD

There have been several advances in information technology that has resulted in new ethical issues to necessitate the creation of congressional acts. There are two congressional acts, which are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protections Act (COPPA) that will be discussed; the purpose and reasoning for the congressional acts to be adopted by each state.

“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) purpose is to protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information” (Federal Register 2000). This act will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public and private health programs. “These protections will begin to address growing public concerns that advances in electronic technology and evolution in the health care industry are resulting or may result, in a substantial erosion of the privacy surrounding individually identifiable health information maintained by health care providers, health plans and their administrative contractors” (Federal Register 2000). This protects the rights of consumers by allowing them access to their health information and controlling the inappropriate use of this information. This Act will restore trust in the health care system.

“When HIPPA’s privacy regulations first received widespread exposure, hospitals, insurers, health maintenance organizations, and others claimed that the Privacy Rule would impose costly new burdens on the industry” (Jones & Bartlett). This has been proven inaccurate as we are now able to treat those at risk for disease more easily and at a faster pace than having to look through old charts. The technology allows everything to be stored in the computer and is more accessible when looking at past medical conditions. HIPPA is cost efficient, “consistent with...