Question

Ethical Challenges related to record keeping HIPAA/FERPA

Answer 1

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ) refers to a federal law related to the protection of education records. This federal law stops a school from sharing education records of students, unless it receives the consent of the student or his parent. It also covers the right of parents to access their children's educational records. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) also refers to a federal law framed to protect a patient's health information. It is important to note that HIPAA applies only on 'covered entities'. These covered entities include health plans, healthcare clearing houses and healthcare providers, who give electronic medical information with respect to 'covered transactions'. Both FERPA and HIPAA are related to record keeping. It is a challenging task to maintain the educational and medical records, for which certain guidelines and ethical concerns have been framed. Ethical challenges related to record keeping are many.

Psychologists face an ethical challenge of developing and maintaining correct, present and related records (like nature, administration, procedure, outcomes and fees of psychological services). This is because records help in knowing a psychologist's work and his or her reasons for the steps taken. Psychologists face an ethical challenge of maintaining confidentiality of developed records. It is an ethical challenge for a psychologist to intimate the clients about the nature and extent of record keeping procedures, along with information about the limitations of confidentiality of records. A psychologist is expected to protect records from illegal access, damage or destruction. A psychologist have an ethical duty of being aware of laws. He or she has to retain records to fulfill legal, regulatory, institutional and ethical demands. It is an ethical challenge for a psychologist to note the context in which records are developed and know about the influence of context on the records. A psychologist must develop and maintain electronic records, keeping in mind their security, confidentiality and correct access. Electronic records must be framed in accordance to legal and ethical laws and demands. It is a challenge for a psychologist in an organization to work in accordance to the record keeping laws of an organization and the APA (American Psychological Association) Ethics Code. It is an ethical requirement to meticulously develop documents, in case of couple, family and group therapies. A psychologist must maintain correct financial records to ensure veracity in billing. It is an ethical challenge to move records required for persistent treatment. When it comes to record disposal, a psychologist must utilize techniques, which will maintain confidentiality and prevent recovery of records.