HIPAA Pros And Cons

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HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was signed into law in 1996, in order to improve the sharing of medical information (can be shared with hospitals, doctors, nurses or governmental agencies depending on the situation) as a mode to save money and at the same time protecting this medical information from misconduct, waste, fraud and abuse. Following HIPAA, the US Department of Health and Human Services created additional rules: The Privacy Rule and the Enforcement Rule, which further solidified the position of HIPAA on protecting medical information of patients. The Privacy Rule (Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information) establishes a set of national standards that protects the use and disclosure of an individual’s health information. The US department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are in charge of implementing and enforcing the Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule strikes a balance between properly protecting the health information of patients, as well as, using medical information to protect and promote the health of the public.
HIPAA is crucial in the field of medicine. However, to some, HIPAA is a controversial law, often posing a difficulty to the medical professionals. HIPAA is especially controversial in the
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The HIPAA privacy rules often come in the way during emergency situations such as, private information can be share only to certain entities and for a short period of time. And any misinterpretation of the act may slow down the passing of information. In an emergency situation, covered entities must continue to put in reasonable safeguards to protect patient information against intentional or unintentional uses and disclosures. Furthermore, covered entities must apply the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards of the HIPAA Security Rule to electronic protected health