Health Insurance Accountability Act (HIPAA

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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was developed to ensure the confidentiality of medical records. HIPAA has created national standards to protect the patient’s medical records and personal health information (PHI). These rules are beneficial to both the patient and healthcare provider. Some ways that HIPAA is beneficial for the patient is by allowing patients to have more control over their medical records, patients have the ability to make choices concerning the use of PHI. Prior to the HIPAA privacy rule, healthcare providers were allowed to distribute health information to other providers without the patient’s consent. Now with the HIPAA privacy rules, patients must sign consent forms authorizing the healthcare …show more content…
I chose this because I feel that being a healthcare provider is all about being a compassionate person, and the respect a provider shows to their patients will allow the patient to feel comfortable and confident about the care they are receiving. The second area I chose was the right to be told by your doctor about your diagnosis and possible prognosis. I chose this because I would expect as a patient to know my diagnosis and what possible prognosis I might be faced with. Another, reason I chose this area is because when I read that the patient has the right to told by a doctor, and personally I feel that a lot of doctors have someone in the office doing too many of their phone calls. I feel that if a test result comes back abnormal then the doctor should reach out to their patient, and in my experience usually an office employee calls to set up an appointment but cannot answer all the patient’s questions. The third area I chose is the patient is expected to provide complete and accurate information about their health and medical history. I chose this area because I have witness so many people not being honest about drinking, smoking, drug use, or any other medications they are on. I think if a patient is not honest about their information that is a recipe for disaster. I personally would rather tell my doctor the truth then run the risk of …show more content…
This is an important policy because this will increase patient satisfaction. This policy allows patients to gain confidence with the quality of care they are receiving, patients are more likely to receive appropriate care in a more timely fashion, and this policy also allows the patient to take action to preserve continuity of care (U.S. Department of health and human services, 1998).
Scenario 2: Access to emergency service policy. This policy is important because some people may not have a regular provider due to economic or geographic barriers. Healthcare providers should always assess a patient who walks into an emergency room to figure out how serious their illness is and treat them accordingly (U.S. Department of health and human services, 1998). Scenario 3: Participation in treatment decisions policy. This policy gives patients the opportunity to participate in making decisions on their treatments. This allows a more open patient/provider relationship. This policy also gives the patients the opportunity to refuse medical treatments and discuss future treatments. Providers will also be able to understand the patients advanced directives