Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Essays

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Essays Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Paper Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Paper The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is implemented in organizations belonging to the health care industry to secure electronic medical records and protect the privacy of patients. HIPAA was brought about by much-needed changes perceived in the field of health care with the emergence of the technology age. Since then, health care entities have adapted technologies that will assist them in keeping and storing medical records. Of course the benefits or advantages of technology in the field of health care are undeniable. Medical records stored electronically allow work efficiency and productivity, enhance transfer and storage of information within the health care network, and maximize quality services provided to patients. However, there will always be two sides of the story. Technology has also its disadvantages. Private information may be accessed by external parties and use it for malevolent intent. The design of a network or system run by technology is not flawless. It can be breached by illegally, with thousands of patient information used to falsify documents for profit or other deceitful reasons. Due to these perceived problems that health care organizations might encounter with their adaptation of technological tools, HIPAA provides guidelines or standards in securing electronic records and protecting patient privacy. Although most health care organizations have adapted the concept of HIPAA, statistics prove that most technological tools or systems utilized in health care organizations do not fulfill HIPAA guidelines and standards. Because of this, problems regarding health care organization compliance to HIPAA arise. Dr. Zachary Peterson continues to discuss the law framing the foundation of HIPAA. One particular law supporting the concepts of HIPAA is the necessity to employ information management within the health care organization. This privacy rule is fortified by the security rule which acts as a defense from external risks and threats that might jeopardize its integrity and accountability as an organization that promises patient information confidentiality. To realize these goals and objectives, HIPAA also necessitates the utilization of technological tools that allows accessibility to electronic records whenever needed, privacy and security of confidential information, and the validity or legitimacy of stored information or records. The laws and technology requirements aforementioned should be observed by health care organizations in order to exhibit full compliance with HIPAA. The article was picked out of all the HIPAA article results shown in the web search because it fulfills the requirement of currency of information. Aside from that, the article was well-developed and concise, presenting all important information in an organized fashion. The article does away with extraneous statements and expressions. The expertise of the writer in the field of systems security was persuasive enough to draw interest and evaluative purposes to the article. It ties up issues discussed in the course and outlines the importance of systems security in the field of health care. Furthermore, it provides a fresh perspective of how HIPAA is applied in real life situations as in the author’s field of industry. Although the article concisely discussed the concept of HIPAA and compliance requirements for health care organizations, it failed to discuss comprehensively the major reasons why full compliance of all health care entities is unsuccessful, effects of non-compliance to HIPAA, and recommendations, in an expert’s point of view, on how problems regarding non-compliance should be addressed in order to ensure patient information privacy and maintain integrity and accountability as a reputable health care organization. The article could have exceeded its limited coverage if the speaker addressed these issues. However, the article compensated for its weakness by exhibiting authority, accuracy, objectivity, and currency. This article was published on March 13 this year, eliminating doubts of out-of-date content that fails to provide real time information applicable to current trends and situations in the field of health care. It was published by a CEO of Netspective, but the content of the article was written by Dr. Zachary Peterson. He earned degrees in John Hopkins University for Computer Science and Security Informatics. At present, Dr. Peterson is a Senior Security Analyst. He works for an organization, the Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) that provides information regarding computer security. Dr. Peterson presented the content of the article objectively. He discussed HIPAA, laws, and required technologies clearly, citing both advantages and disadvantages of technology when applied within the context of health care organizations. Although explanations were brief, Dr. Peterson presented all relevant topics that solidify full answers to queries regarding HIPAA, security rule, technology, laws, and compliance. The accuracy of information presented by Dr. Peterson may be tied up with his experience in learning computer systems and informatics in graduate school as well as his experiences as a Senior Security Analyst in ISE. ISE works closely with reputable organizations such as MasterCard and WebEx, to name a few. Since the concepts of security systems have been applied in his field of industry, Dr. Peterson was able to provide accurate information regarding the aforementioned topics. ARTICLE REFERENCE Shah, S. N., (2008), Guest Article: IT Security and Record Management in Healthcare. Retrieved September 10, 2008, from The Healthcare IT Guy. Website: healthcareguy.com/index.php/archives/417