The modern health care industry is affected by the issue of confidentiality. It relates to the manner in which nurses communicate with patients and their families, as well as each other. The breach of patient information is considered a breach of the current code of ethics for nurses. The code stresses the importance of privacy in advocating and promoting the rights of patients. Regardless of the introduction of modern technology, the issues of confidentiality still exist. The patient’s information that is private and confidential remains breached, calling for the need for numerous changes in the healthcare sector. The changes are important as they prompt nurses to keep patients’ information private. Therefore, the policy of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is aimed at addressing the challenges of confidentiality as described in this paper.
HIPAA Privacy Rules
HIPAA encompasses privacy rules that are meant to safeguard the patient’s private information. It is also referred to as Protected Health Information (PHI). The law was enacted to protect personal private information. Thus, HIPAA ensures that any health information regarding the private life of a patient is protected. However, it does not matter whether the information is recorded, oral, or written. The law safeguards health information which is created or received through a health plan, life insurer, university, public health authority, or an employer. In addition, the law protects information which relates to the present, past or future of an individual. In all these ways, nurses and other healthcare providers are required to protect health information in whichever medium.
The privacy rule of HIPAA also ensures that the medical records that relate to healthcare clearinghouses and health plans are protected. In this, other personal health information is protected by health plans, healthcare providers, and healthcare clearinghouses. The services that are conducted electronically are monitored in the duty to protect patient information. The appropriate safeguards are required for the rule to work effectively. In other words, conditions and limits are set on the disclosures and use that cover patients’ rights for confidential information. These include the right to obtain health care records and examine corrections.
According to the rule, the specific health plans should ensure confidential information is protected. Every healthcare provider is also required to transmit health information in connection with certain transactions. Authorization requests are ensured before the information is transmitted electronically. It also guarantees that third parties are not involved in the transmission of personal health information. In the health care clearinghouses, information that is nonstandard is kept in a standard form. In these clearinghouses, individually identifiable information is provided to the healthcare provider or the health plan. Disclosures and uses are availed to help protect the data. These include; value-added networks and billing services, among others that enable the clearinghouses to function in the required manner.
To prevent the breach of confidential information, HIPAA ensures that certain uses and disclosures are authorized. In this, the patient or the individual must provide written authorization for any disclosure of protected information. The information could be related to payment, health, or other operations of healthcare. The authorization should relate to the privacy rule as reflected by HIPAA. Disclosures that require authorization from the patient include the results of a lab test, coverage purposes of a life insurer, or pre-employment physical tests. The authorization should be written in a language that many people can understand. It should contain specific information that needs to be used or disclosed. The individuals who are required to disclose the information should also be specified. The privacy rule expresses other legal permissions such as the right to revoke in writing to ensure that confidential information is kept private.