Essay on Employees Violating HIPAA: Breaking Customers' Privacy in Health Service Org

Introduction

The employees in the health service organization are breaking customers privacy. The employees are violating Healthcare use Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The law was developed in protecting the privacy of the patients. The HIPAA privacy rule creates national standards in protecting the personal health and medical records of an individual. The rule needs required safeguards in protecting personal health information privacy. Protecting the health information of the patient is important. The reason is that it ensures that all the medical records of the patients are safe from public view. It is against HIPAA to breach the confidentiality of a patient. The act uses the Protected Health Information concept. The aim of the concept is protecting "individually identifiable health information" (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2017, p.183). The information might be in oral, electronic, or paper form. The information entails past, present, and future of an individual, including the mental or physical condition.

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Why was this law enacted?

The law was mainly introduced in protecting the privacy of all patients (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2017, p.184). It is the Congress that passed the law. Their aim was developing standards regarding the way of holding or transmitting healthcare information. It also depends on the way information is transmitted among entities. The information might be in electronic or paper form. Moreover, the law was enacted in developing regulations regarding privacy protection. It mainly aimed at ensuring that the patients' confidentiality is not breached. Apart from the process of sharing information, HIPAA was established in providing medical information rules. The intention was also to provide the employees with the medical records of the patients. However, they are supposed to use it when needed. Therefore, HIPAA has really helped health services since its enactment. The reason is that most patients and healthcare have adhered to the rules.

If an employee shares confidential medical information about a celebrity and is caught, what should the penalty be?

The employee should be fired. Also, the employee should be fined. The fine should range between $100 to $50,000 (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2017 p.184). Through this, other employees will fear to breach this law. If confidential medical information of a celebrity is shared, then it means the employee cannot be trusted. An example is Farrah Fawcett's ordeal. An employee at UCLA leaked Farrah's cancer information (ReminderCall.com, 2017). The diagnosis was on The National Enquirer even before Farrah alerted her friend or son. In this case, the employee was fired. However, it emotionally affected the patient. One of the actresses of the attorney said that the issue was hard on the patient. Therefore, the patients' information should always be protected.

References

Buchbinder, S. B., & Shanks, N. H. (2017). Introduction to health care management. Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

ReminderCall.com. (2017, January). Top 15 Celebrity HIPAA Fails and Their Consequences. Retrieved from https://www.remindercall.com/celebrity-hipaa-fails/