Essay on Protecting Patient Confidentiality: HIPAA & Beyond

Patient confidentiality entails the obligation of health professionals who can access a patient's medical records and information to hold the information with utmost confidence. Other than a few exceptions, anything a patient discusses with a healthcare practitioner has to be held and kept private between the two parties (Blightman, Griffiths, and Danbury, 2014). The work explains HIPAA as an example of a patient confidentiality program, Ways of protecting patient confidentiality, areas of concern with regards to patient confidentiality and their legal repercussions, and how healthcare practitioners can obtain further resources on HIPAA and cultural diversity at the workplace.

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The HIPAA is a law that was designed to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the healthcare system (Edemekong and Haydel, 2020). It works by protecting the health insurance coverage, preventing fraud and abuse in healthcare, and providing guidelines for pre-tax medical spending, group health plans, and company-owned life insurance policies among others (Cohen and Mello, 2018).

Health practitioners have the responsibility of protecting patient confidentiality either verbally, in written or via electronic systems. In doing so, they have to focus on some areas of concern. Such areas include the use of wireless networks to access medical records, the use of PHI data on hard drives, the use of passwords, and the efficiency of their authenticity systems among others. In the event of a breach of patient confidentiality, the healthcare practitioners stand to face various legal repercussions that include but not limited to termination of employment, payment of the civil lawsuits resulting from the malpractice, and standing trial to defend against the criminal charges (Quain, 2018). However, all the outcomes come along with loss of reputation to the practitioner, when found guilty.

Medical practitioners should, therefore, improve their skills by accessing further resources on HIPAA and cultural diversity ("The University of Pittsburgh", 2020). This will enhance their skill set at the workplace and enable them to obtain the appropriate certifications for efficient service delivery.

References

"University of Pittsburgh", (2020). Cultural competence resources. University of Pittsburgh; Office of Health Sciences Diversity. https://www.healthdiversity.pitt.edu/reources/cultural-competence-resources

Blightman, K., Griffiths, S. and Danbury, C. (2014). Patient confidentiality: When can a breach be justified?, Continuing Education in Anaesthesia Critical Care & Pain, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages 52-56.

Cohen, G. and Mello, M. (2018). HIPAA and Protecting Health Information in the 21st Century. Jamanetwork.com. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2682916

Edemekong, P. and Haydel, M. (2020). Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK500019/https://smallbusiness.chron.com/employee-consequences-breach-confidentiality-15476.html

Quain, S. (2018). Employee consequences for breach of confidentiality. Chron.com. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/employee-consequences-breach-confidentiality-15476.html