The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Abstract
The Congress of the United States enacted the HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) Act in 1996 and President Bill Clinton signed it into law in the same year. HIPPA Title I effectively protect workers and their families with health insurance coverage when they lose or change their jobs. HIPPA Title II is referred to as the AS (Administrative Simplification)provisions requires the efficient national standards establishment for employers, health insurance plans, national identifiers for providers as well as health care transactions that are electronic (Chaikind, 2004). This study will expound on the human capital improvement project that will be based at the John Hopkins Hospital pediatric wing of the hospital in order to increase its efficiency as well as retain its noble reputation.
This noble Act provides the right to privacy for individuals who are between the ages of 12 up to 18 years. The health care provider should have signed a disclosure from the affected individual prior to giving out any particular information regarding provided health care to any person including the parents. The AS provisions also address the paramount issue regarding privacy and security of health data. These standards are effectively meant to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the country’s health care system through encouraging the extensive electronic data interchange usage in the health care system in the U.S. It also worth noting that, HIPPA reduces health care abuse and fraud (Hartley & Jones, 2004).
Thus, the HIPAA Act applies to John Hopkins Hospital since it is a health care organization, which is supposed to comply with the legislation. This noble legislation sets the standards to which John Hopkins Hospital operates and that are why the hospital’s record of accomplishment in regards to high quality health care services is very high. Various orientation-training needs are required for new hires at the John Hopkins Hospital that involve human resources. Among these needs include creating awareness and education to the new hires in regards to the various legislations that the John Hopkins Hospital has to comply with including HIPPA. The new hires at the John Hopkins Hospital will also have to be told on what is expected of them in regard to HIPPA, their targets, the hospital’s hierarchy, the chain of command as well as the channels of communication that are used at the John Hopkins Hospital. The issue on the various protocols that the new hires will use at the hospital will be paramount since they have to comprehend the system for an effective working environment (Krager & Krager, 2008).
The New Project – HIPPA
The new project is consistent with the hospital mission and strategic plans since the hospital is required by law to comply with the Act and the project team will consist of a Dream Team comprising of 10 staff members mainly drawn from the hospital’s human resource department, the hospital’s finance department and the pediatric department. The human resource department has expertise in integrating the training program; the finance department is tasked with drawing the budget of the whole project and sourcing for funds from the government institutions in-charge of health matters whereas the pediatric department will have the noble task of offering their valuable expertise in the pediatric profession. The project is expected to take a maximum of 8 months to be completed and the next phase will be a continuous refresher program after every 2 months in order to continue enhance knowledge concerning the Act (Meredith & Mantel, 2012).
New Project to the New Hires of John Hopkins Hospital
The new hires at the John Hopkins Hospital will also be taken on an HIPPA oriental tour round the entire hospital in order to familiarize them with the various sections that the hospital has complied with on the HIPPA regulation. This is very important since the new hires will get a chance of seeing physically the application of the HIPPA regulation. The orientation training will provide an opportunity that will allow the new hires to ask any questions that they have. This creates a conducive openness environment where they get to be welcomed in order for them to have a sense of belonging to the John Hopkins noble and valued family. John Hopkins new hires will also be taught on the procedures, policies, goals, company history, punching in, culture and the work rules at the hospital. The new hires will also be briefed on their numerous benefits that they will get including social security, workers compensation as well as the various incentives that the hospital awards their staff when they perform exemplary and surpass their targets (Chaikind, 2004).
Conclusion
The John Hopkins Hospital new hires orientation program will majorly focus on HIPPA although it will also include the other aspects that are also fundamental in the orientation training. The training materials will be distributed through handouts and written materials so that they can comprehend the training effectively. The materials will take into consideration the various languages of the new hires so that it incorporates all of them (Krager & Krager, 2008).
References
Chaikind, H. R. (2004). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA):Overview and analyses. New York: Novinka Books.
Hartley, C. P., & Jones, E. (2004). HIPAA plain & simple: A compliance guide for healthcare professionals. Chicago: AMA Press.
Krager, D., & Krager, C. (2008). HIPAA for health care professionals. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar/Cengage Learning.
Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2012). Project management: A managerial approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
