The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) passed in 1996 to help set a national standard to protect certain patient health information (Gartee, 2011). The major goal of HIPAA is to ensure a patient’s Health Information (PHI) is utilized by the correct individuals at the correct time to perform a certain job. In addition, HIPPA sets the standards by which PHI can be shared with covered entities and family; plus allowing the patient to receive notice on how their PHI will be utilized. In addition, HIPPA is a complete and comprehensive guide to protect the public’s health and well being while striking a balance that permits important uses of PHI to share information (“Summary” n.d.).
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act includes three categories of security safeguards and how covered entities will communicate PHI. The safeguards are administrative, physical and technical. The Administrative safeguard has for components: transaction and code sets, uniform identifiers, privacy and security (Gartee, 2010). Transactions are electronic exchanges of PHI between two parties for a specific purpose and allow covered entities to transfer this data via Electronic Data Interchange (“Transaction & Code Sets Standards” n.d.). In addition, HIPAA requires employers to have an …show more content…
The rules, regulations and penalties are in place to help safeguard a patients PHI, ensure standard procedures for coding, establish all provides utilize NPI’s and inform the patient on how their information will be utilized. I feel the overall concept of HIPAA serves as a great building block on protecting PHI. However, it with the age of technology, no PHI is fully protected. PHI holds a gold mine of information for anyone who can breach a security system or perform an unethical act. Although there are penalties for breach of PHI, it will only serve to slow down people who wish utilize unauthorized access to someone
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act includes three categories of security safeguards and how covered entities will communicate PHI. The safeguards are administrative, physical and technical. The Administrative safeguard has for components: transaction and code sets, uniform identifiers, privacy and security (Gartee, 2010). Transactions are electronic exchanges of PHI between two parties for a specific purpose and allow covered entities to transfer this data via Electronic Data Interchange (“Transaction & Code Sets Standards” n.d.). In addition, HIPAA requires employers to have an …show more content…
The rules, regulations and penalties are in place to help safeguard a patients PHI, ensure standard procedures for coding, establish all provides utilize NPI’s and inform the patient on how their information will be utilized. I feel the overall concept of HIPAA serves as a great building block on protecting PHI. However, it with the age of technology, no PHI is fully protected. PHI holds a gold mine of information for anyone who can breach a security system or perform an unethical act. Although there are penalties for breach of PHI, it will only serve to slow down people who wish utilize unauthorized access to someone