NURS 6051 Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet Sample HIPAA Regulation Fact Sheet

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NURS 6051 Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet Sample

HIPAA Regulation Fact Sheet

  • The selected regulation is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The HIPAA Act of 1996 was passed to protect health insurance coverage for workers in case they change or lose their jobs. The policy also allows covered individuals to carry the insurance from one job to another, adjust family changes, and replace lost coverage (US Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).  
  • HIPAA regulation has three primary rules; HIPAA privacy, HIPAA security, and HIPAA breach notification rules. The HIPAA privacy rule sets standards to protect personal health information (PHI), governs how healthcare providers handle PHI and restrict the use and disclosure of PHI without the patient’s authorization (HealthIT.gov, n.d.).
  • The HIPAA security rule has standards that protect electronic personal health information received and maintained by all HIPAA-covered entities. It mandates the institutions to employ physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect electronic PHI.
  • The HIPAA breach notification rule requires the covered entities to notify the affected individuals when there is a breach of unsecured PHI (HealthIT.gov, n.d.).
  • The HIPAA security, privacy, and breach notification regulations considerably impact the system implementation. According to Theodos and Sittig (2020), all healthcare entities covered under the HIPAA Act are expected to ensure that the three HIPAA regulations are considered before implementing any system. For instance, implementing a new EHR system in a HIPAA-covered entity would require the institution to put in place the recommended safeguards to protect personal health information, have disclosure institutional policies, and define the steps that should be taken to report PHI breaches.
  • The regulations may also significantly affect clinical care, patient/provider interactions, and workflow in the covered entity. The protection of personal health information, as recommended by the HIPAA regulation, improves clinical care efficiency and enhances patient safety. Kels (2020) notes that non-disclosure of patient information protects patients from security issues such as fraud, thus enhancing patient safety. However, patient/provider interactions may be restricted by HIPAA security and privacy regulations since care providers are cautious of the information they share with patients and other healthcare providers. Additionally, the workflow in HIPAA-compliant institutions can easily manage their workflow using automated task-management systems. Workflow can be reduced by tracking patient care and treatment plans and completing administrative tasks on autopilot.
  • To address the HIPAA regulation, some different organizational policies and procedures are required to be in place. First, the organization must develop institutional social media policies based on best practices and social media information-sharing guidelines. According to Mbonihankuye et al. (2019), organizations under the HIPAA regulation must develop policies outlining the necessary procedures for reporting PHI or social media use breaches. Thus, the organization should also develop similar policies. Additionally, the organization should train the staff responsible for handling patient information on HIPAA, the guidelines, breaches, and the consequences to emphasize the importance of maintaining the guidelines.
  • Therefore, it is essential to beware of the HIPAA regulations, their impact on care and patient/provider interactions, the breaches, and consequences, and thus avoid them.

References

HealthIT.gov (n.d.). Official Website of The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Health IT legislations and Regulations. Accessed 26th July 2023 from https://www.healthit.gov/topic/laws-regulation-and-policy/health-it-legislation

Kels C. G. (2020). HIPAA in the Era of Data Sharing. JAMA, 323(5), 476–477. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.19645

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