HIPAA is a federal law implemented in 1996 to secure people’s health information. It creates rules for the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) and highlights the responsibilities of covered entities. Covered entities are healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses transmitting health information electronically. Under these entities, there is a regulation for compliance with HIPAA to protect the Confidentiality and security of patients’ sensitive data. On May 14, 2013, federal prosecutors indicted one of the hospital’s medical technicians for violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Prosecutors allege that between October 2012 and March 2014, Laurie Napper, a hospital employee, abused her position and gained access to patients’ names, addresses, and Medicare numbers to sell the information. A plea hearing was scheduled for June 12, 2013, where she was convicted, handed a six-month sentence in a halfway house, and given a fine of 2 100 dollars. The same hospital informed more than 34,000 patients about a breach of their medical data a few weeks earlier. A consultant working with the hospital had copied the patient files onto a laptop that was their own, which had been stolen from their car. The data were – but without encryption – password protected, meaning the unauthorized person could have accessed the patient files by simply guessing the password.
Covered entity status for the healthcare provider implies that this entity must adhere to the regulations stipulated in the HIPAA Act. For covered entities, healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses that electronically transmit healthcare information are included. In this situation, the hospital is defined as a covered entity, and the nurse, treating patients as an employee, comes under the umbrella of the covered entity’s responsibilities. Integrity and secrecy of a patient are the principal notions of my ethical standpoint on this problem. Healthcare professionals must keep information about patients and follow HIPAA rules and regulations. Unauthorized access and sharing of patient information are not only considered violations of trust but also a problem to the structure of the health care system. I found a scholarly article titled “HIPAA security compliance challenges: The case for small healthcare providers. International Journal of Healthcare Management” to support this ethical stance. The article exposes the challenges in implementing HIPAA regulations and how healthcare providers safeguard patient privacy. The author draws the attention of covered entities to legal and ethical obligations regarding the privacy of patient information and the penalties that a failure to honor privacy could attract.
In summary, the case study that pertained to the violation and sharing of patient information highlights the role that HIPAA plays in ensuring that all the stakeholders adhere to the regulations. Holding the status of a covered entity, healthcare professionals should prioritize patient privacy, and the ethical standpoints comparable to this should reinforce even more strict compliance with these regulations to keep trust and integrity in the healthcare system. The article in the scholarly journal provides a basis for this position as its insights into the dilemmas healthcare providers face when engaging with the regulatory environment are detailed.
References
Jamshed, N., Ozair, F., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2018). Ethical issues in electronic health records: A general overview. Perspectives in Clinical Research, 6(2), 73–76. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-3485.153997
Chen, J. Q., & Benusa, A. (2017). HIPAA security compliance challenges: The case for small healthcare providers. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 10(2), 135-146.
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