Impact of HIPAA 1996 privacy and security rules on healthcare

¶ … HIPPA 1996 on Privacy and Security Rules on Health Care

Impact of HIPPA 1996 Privacy and Security Rules on Health Care

Over the last several years, the overall issue of privacy and security within the health care industry has been increasingly brought to the forefront. Where, various laws have been created to prevent fraud, while providing increased amounts of consumer protections. One such regulation is: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA). This law has two main objectives which include: making health insurance more portable (or easy to move) when someone switches employers and preventing waste / fraud. To achieve this objective, the Act called for the use of technology, to address these obvious issues of waste and fraud. However, this would bring up privacy concerns that many critics would have in implementing such regulations. To address these concerns, the law set four different standards for protecting the privacy / security information of patients to include: standard formats for when computers are sharing information, a uniform format for all health providers, it sets security standards for protecting the information of consumers and all information that is on file must be kept up-to-date. (Kazimer, 2008) the effect that this would have on the health care industry would be profound, as it would provide increased standards of security. As a result, both critics and proponents of the HIPPA 1996 provisions have been continually debating the long-term effects of: the law. To fully understand the true impact of HIPPA requires: examining various pieces of peer reviewed literature. This will provide the greatest insights, as to the overall impact that regulations are having on the health care industry.

Literature Review

Farrell, T. (2010). Impact of HIPPA Security Rules on Health Care Organizations. SANS Institute Washington, D.C.

In the article titled, the Impact of HIPPA Security Rules on Health Care Organizations, it discusses the new security and privacy rules that are relevant under the law. To include: establishing formal security mechanisms / procedures, security configuration management, how personal information will be maintained / protected, training, the roles / responsibilities for security personnel and physical access controls. This is significant, because it used to provide a basic foundation about how the underlying rules and regulations are implemented.

Armstrong, D. (2005). Potential Impact of HIPPA Privacy Rules on Data Collection. Arch Intern Med. 165, 1125 -- 1129.

In this article, the author discusses the potential impact the HIPPA privacy rules on patient care, by examining the total amounts of disclosures / written consent forms that are returned to health organizations. After interviewing 1,221 patients before and after the new rules went into effect; researchers found that those patients, who were older and from a more wealthy economic backgrounds, were most likely to return the consent forms (once the rule would take effect). This is significant, because it shows the various protections that are in place, are being utilized by only a select group of patients.

Nosowsky, R. (2005) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy Rule. Annual Review of Medicine. 57, (575 -- 590).

In this article, the author discusses the overall impact that HIPPA is having on medical research. Where, the various privacy and security protections are: making it more difficult for researchers to conduct a variety of studies. To be able to satisfy the requirement, many will often turn to the Common Rule. This is when researchers must strike a balance between the issue of privacy and biomedical research. What this shows, is that the new law is forcing researchers to have to adapt, as to how they account for various privacy and security concerns regarding subjects. At the same time, the law provides a way of being able to maintain this balance.

Feld, a. (2005). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). American Journal of Gasterology. 100, 1440 -- 1443.

In this article, researchers are attempting to find out how various health care professionals are dealing with the changes from law. The results were that the majority of health care providers reported: increased costs and having to hire special support staff; to ensure that they are in compliance with these different regulations. This is significant, because it shows many of the different challenges that are being faced, within the industry because of these new changes.

Harman, L. (2005). HIPPA a Few Years Later. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 10 No.2 http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume102005/No2May05/tpc27_216018.aspx

In this article, the author talks about the overall impact that the new law has had on health care organizations. Where, they found that it complicates the structure of the organization. This is because the various privacy / security aspects of the law must be incorporated into a number of other hospital protocols including: employee training, disaster planning, patient identifiers and possible research that could be undertaken. As a result, the author found that costs increase dramatically at health care organizations. This is significant because it can be used to corroborate what other research is showing, as to the total operational and financial impact on the organization.

Johnston, a. (2008). Information Policy Compliance in the Healthcare Industry. Information Management and Computer Security. 16, 5 -- 19.

In this article, researchers were attempting to identify how the organization itself could have an impact upon HIPPA regulations. To determine the overall effects, they surveyed 800 different health professionals at a variety of organizations. The results were: that the attitude from administrators / upper management will have an affect upon the organization itself. This is because the overall positive or negative emotions tied to the new regulations, would have an effect on the staff. This is significant, because it can be used to establish that the culture of the health organization would determine how effectively the rules were enforced, based upon the overall positive / negative emotions surrounding the change.