The affect of HIPAA and HITECH regulations on health care systems

Clearly, define the impact of HIPAA and HITECH regulations on health care systems for the future with mention to state and federal differences.
HIPAA which is referred to as the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was put to action in the year 1996. The main purpose of this act is to uncomplicate the maintenance of the insurance policies, uphold their confidentiality and subsequently safely store the information for reference. HIPAA also equally aims in ensuring the health care setups together with the health organizations take control of the management expenses and costs. Consequently, HIPAA has set numerous rules and regulations that relate to various functions plus the events of disclosure of the personal information of the individual's health information (also termed as protected health information). Moreover, HIPAA aims to work very efficiently to make sure that the disclosure of personal information is conducted only to permit high-quality health care. According to National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL), the office of the president signed the Affordable Care Act, from which there will be interoperable and safe standards as well as procedures to enable electronic admission of the persons in the federal and state human and health service programs. (Richards 2009)
On the other hand, HITECH which refers to The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health is an act that looks upon setting new goals for the expansion of the role of states in stimulating the exchange of health-related information and adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The sole objective of this act is to increase the number of health care providers through financial incentives such as; training, giving education plus some other actions led by the state. The act on Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health passed was passed as a part of the USA Recovery and Reinvestment Act, marking the HIE (Health Information Exchange) as the priority. HITECH has put standards by supplying reasonable resources of planning, use, and deployment and even has certified the mandates of HER. (Glenn & Monteith 2014)
Moreover, on state and federal differences, HIPAA and HITECH Privacy Rule establishes a ground of federal protections. For instance, the existing federal or state laws that give more health information privacy protections or otherwise is not in contradiction with the Rule that remains in effect. Like a patchwork quilt, they depend on Privacy Rule protections. Subsequently, the Privacy Rule will not pre-empt or instead override a state law that reports of disease or an injury or for the conduct of public health surveillance and investigation. (Richards 2009)
Define how the regulations will modify the implementation and ongoing use of software systems that maintain patient data.
HITECH has posted not only opportunities but also some challenges to health care providers. The implementation of EHR gives an elaborate, responsive and cost-effective care system. However, this is also covered by the fear of loss of privacy and risk to security. Also, has given health care organizations the mandate to execute the programs which can be put to use to improve the effectiveness of health care plus health safety and efficiency. For example, one such software is Oracle, which is exemplary in identity management and data security solutions. (Richards 2009) It has allowed the organization to put to action first order HIPAA/HITECH compliance programs in the sector of health care emerging electronic age.
Moreover, reforms that have been brought in HIPAA/HITECH system dwell on the definition of manifestation.  Such reforms will improve the quality of healthcare as the process of obtaining a family medical history, genetic information about the patient and the disease from which he is suffering, is very smart in availing the right course of treatment. HITECH avails facilities for the patient health information by contacting the healthcare organization, the associates of business and service providers to disclose any form of breaches in case there is one. (Hiller et al. 2011)
Discuss the changes and impacts of software and hardware vendors.
The HITECH and HIPAA act which is currently applicable, directly affects the business associates and vendors, more particularly the software and hardware vendors. The trend to adopt the security and privacy expectations on contractual commitments with the various partisan entities but under the HITECH Act. The business associates are expected enact and obey the rules enlisted in the HIPAA Security Rule (SR). The Act also gives most of the software vendors that provide HER systems, to be considered as business associates. However, because the vendors are expected to comply with the rules, more vendor/provider dialog usually takes place with regards to the appropriate Business Associate Agreements or the contracts.
Clarify the changes and impacts to infrastructure and organizational standards.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) regulations also applies both to the paper and electronic records. A breach in the notification can result in the issue of penalties. However, there are provisions within the act for criminal penalties for business associates too. Even though HIPAA in many cases addresses only the health information security and the issues related to the privacy, HITECH act on the other hands projects its scope to include the non-HIPAA covered entities as well. Thus, HITECH acts to add a strong effort to HIPAA act. For instance, the most potent effect it has had is to motivate the vendors, the healthcare force, plus the caregivers as well to put to action a stronger and more secure means to guard patient’s data and avoid fines of multimillion-dollar that are levied for whatever kind of noncompliance committed. (Parks et al. 2011)
















References
Richards, M. M. (2009). Electronic medical records: Confidentiality issues in the time of HIPAA. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 40(6), 550.
Glenn, T., & Monteith, S. (2014). Privacy in the digital world: medical and health data outside of HIPAA protections. Current psychiatry reports, 16(11), 494.
Hiller, J., McMullen, M. S., Chumney, W. M., & Baumer, D. L. (2011). Privacy and security in the implementation of health information technology (electronic health records): US and EU compared. BUJ Sci. & Tech. L., 17, 1.
Parks, R., Chu, C. H., & Xu, H. (2011, December). Healthcare information privacy research: Iusses, gaps and what next? In AMCIS.