Question

1. What are the basic HIPAA requirements concerning privacy of protected healthcare

information?

2. In your opinion, has HIPAA struck the proper balance between privacy and uses of

health care information? Why or why not?

Answer 1

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is united states legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.The law has emerged into greater prominence in recent years with the proliferation of health data breaches caused by cyber attacks and ransomware attacks on health insurers and providers.

Basic HIPAA requirements concerning privacy of protected healthcare

• Use information only when necessary toperform your job duties.

Privacy Rule :

1. All employees to sign non disclosure agreement(NDA).
2. All new employees to be part of induction program on HIPAA.
3. Awareness activities on HIPAA to be done to ensure alll the employees are aware of the HIPAA requirements.

Security Rule :

1. Establish, Monitor, Review physical safeguards to ensure PHI.
2. Establish, Monitor, Review Technical safeguardes using to ensure PHI is safeguarded using technology.
3. Establish, Monitor, Review Administrative safeguards.

Enforcement Rule :

1. Sanction policy - Employee will be separated incase of a HIPAA breach depending on the severity.
2. Creating awareness on consequences for involvement in a breach.

2. In your opinion, has HIPAA struck the proper balance between privacy and uses of health care information? Why or why not?

HIPAA has the Enforcement rule sets civil money penalties for violating HIPAA rules and establishes proceure for investigations and hearings for HIPAA violations.

Penalties:

• Indicvidual disclosing the information are also penalized, not just the institution.
• Criminal penalties for wrongful disclosures include larger fines and prison.
• Civilmoney penalties upto $ 1,500,000/year for identical types of violations.
• Termination of bussiness associates.

Federal Governament protects PHI through HIPAA regulations.