Course Project Rough Draft
MGH HIPAA violation case
Jennifer Brummage Medical Law and Ethics
In the health care business, there are certain standards and laws that have been put in place to protect our patients and their personal health information. When a health care facility fails to protect their patient’s confidential information, the US Government may get involved and facilities may be forced to pay huge sums of money in fines, and risk damaging their reputation.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was established in 1996. This Act was put into place in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system. The HIPAA law includes a Privacy
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According to the complaint that was filed, the employee had removed the folder containing the documents from her bag and placed them in the seat beside her. The documents were not in an envelope and they were bound only by a rubber band. Upon exiting the train, the MGH employee left the documents on the subway train. The documents were never recovered.
This incident was later reported to the Office of Civil rights (OCR) by a patient who was informed by the hospital that his medical records had been lost by an employee and left them on a subway train. The One hundred and ninety two patients involved had been patients of the hospitals Infectious Disease outpatient practice, which includes HIV/AIDS patients. The fact that the patients involved in this case were potentially AIDS patients, made the violation that much more serious. Investigators had to take in to account that these people had their medical records lost, and in those records were their phone numbers and addresses and possibly their place of employment. If these documents fell into the wrong hands, the potential for destroying the patients’ lives was very high. Had a person with malicious intent got ahold of their information, they could have harassed the patient and possibly spread their personal information around, which could have had devastating consequences.
The Office of Civil Rights began their investigation of Massachusetts General following the
US Congress created the Hipaa bill in 1996 because of public concern of how their private information was being used. It is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which Congress created to protect confidentiality, privacy and security of patient information. It was also for health care documents to be passed electronically. Hipaa is a privacy rule, which gives patients control over their health information. Patients have to give permission any healthcare provider can disclose any information placed in the individual’s medical records. It helps limit protected health information (PHI) to minimize the chance of inappropriate disclosure. It establishes national-level standards that healthcare providers must comply with and strictly investigates compliance related issues while holding violators to civil or criminal penalties if they violate the privacy of a person’s PHI. Hipaa also has boundaries for using and disclosing health records by covered entities; a healthcare provider, health plan, and healthcare clearinghouse. It also supports the cause of disclosing PHI without a person’s consent for individual healthcare needs, public benefit and national interests. The portability part of Hipaa guarantees patients health insurance to employees after losing a job, making sure health insurance providers can’t discriminate against people because of health status or pre-existing condition, and keeps their files safe while being sent electronically. The Privacy
HIPAA is the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The primary goal of the law is to make it easier for people to keep health insurance, protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information and help the healthcare industry control administrative costs. Under HIPAA, patients have the right to access and control their health records. In order to safeguard protected health information (PHI, or patients’ individually identifiable information), health care providers must restrict access to the information and have patients’ permission to disclose it.
This paper will examine the privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996
Disclosing confidential patient information without patient consent can happen in the health care field quite often and is the basis for many cases brought against health care facilities. There are many ways confidential information gets into the wrong hands and this paper explores some of those ways and how that can be prevented.
Healthcare technology has grown and evolved over time. With the conversion to electronic medical records and the creation of social media just to name a few, ensuring patient privacy is of the utmost importance for healthcare facilities in this day and age. In order for an organization to avoid hefty fines, it is imperative that a healthcare administrator maintains compliance with the standards and regulations associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This paper will provide a summary
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set of national standards created for the protection of health information; it is also known as a “Privacy Rule”. This rule was employed in 1996 by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to address the use and disclosure of an individual’s health information as well as the standards for the individual’s privacy rights to understand and control the manner in which their information is used.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is a statute endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1996. It offers protections for many American workers which improves portability and continuity of health insurance coverage. The seven titles of the final law are Title I - Health care Access , Portability, Title II - Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse; administrative simplification; Medical Liability Reform; Title III – Tax-related Health Provisions; Title IV – Application and
What the HIPAA law states. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that was enacted in 1996 establishing safeguards and rules to protect patients demographics and medical records. These rules limit the circumstances of how health records are used or obtained without the patient's authorization. HIPAA has set national standards that require these safeguards to maintain the attainability of health records and keeping them classified. This rule applies to any institutional and noninstitutional providers and only a written authorization by the patient will allow any use of their health records be disclosed.
In 1996, President Clinton and the US Congress passed/signed the act of HIPPA. HIPPA was enacted to maintain confidentiality of their patient’s information and to protect health insurance coverage for families and workers when they lose or change their job (portability). HIPPA set standards to respect the individual’s rights by exercising such procedures, authorizing and disclosing information. This means that anybody that works at a daily clinical or administrative job should never under any circumstances speak about the patients. If HIPAA violations are violated, this can greatly impact the person working in the medical field. Not only are violations expensive, but the penalties for noncompliance is based on the level of negligence. Criminal
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed on August 21, 1996, with the intent of making health care delivery more efficient and increasing the number of Americans with health insurance coverage. The purpose of this law was to ensure the security and privacy of health information, it ensures the portability of employer-provided health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. HIPAA also improves the efficiency of health care delivery by creating standards for electronic transmission of health care transactions.
HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was passed by Congress in 1996, Federal law that restricts access to individuals' private medical information:
Once a patient creates a physician-patient relationship the patient has given his/her doctor the implied consent to be treated by that doctor. Now as the medical assistant one of our various task is to inform the patient of the doctor’s notice of privacy, these are the papers you have to read and sign to state that you understand the information, before seeing their new physician. In those papers, which most people sign without reading, tell you how your personal and private information will be used and divulged, how your information will be protected by the healthcare workers, and what you, the patient, can do if you feel that your private health information has been breached. (Association) Most if not all of these codes fall under one law, one very important law that any healthcare related worker would get fired if they violated the patients notice of privacy practice documents each patient signs.
This article discusses a routine file maintenance that unfortunately ended in the arrest of a nurse that shared a patient's personal medical information with her husband. Mrs. A had been an employee at the regional clinic for approximately five years. Her time there was cut short when her husband got involved in a car accident. The people in the other car that was involved in the accident, sued her husband for compensation for their injuries. The following day at work, Mrs. A took it upon herself to read the plaintiff's personal information on the chart and jot down some notes to share with her husband as a form of blackmail. Mr. A used the information provided to him from his wife in an attempt to get the plaintiff to drop the lawsuit. Of
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, most commonly known by its initials HIPAA, was enacted by Congress then signed by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996. This act was put into place in order to regulate the privacy of patient health information, and as an effort to lower the cost of health care, shape the many pieces of our complicated healthcare system. This act also protects individuals from losing their health insurance if they lose their employment or choose to switch employers. . Before HIPAA there was no standard or consistency for the enforcement of the privacy for patients and the rules and regulations varied by state and organizations. HIPAA
Then there are also the concerns of privacy issues. This is when HIPPA comes into effect. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) regulates the privacy of health information exchange. The HIPPA reduces health care fraud and abuse. It protects the privacy of all individual’s health information.