Categorically, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act abbreviated as HIPAA connotes to a federal legislation that got passed in 1996. The cited legislation requires health care providers to prioritize the privacy of patient records as well as health information. HIPAA mandated the federal Department of Health and Human Services to build up regulations to implement the mentioned privacy requirements, known as the Privacy Rule. The suggested privacy rule became effective on 14th April 2003. Prevalently, there exist myriad features and elements of HIPAA. The cited elements often get geared towards the well-being of the patient. The paper, therefore, endeavors to extrapolate on elements of HIPAA coupled with the exceptions of the law regarding information disclosure. Also, the paper aims at establishing how the HIPAA principles could get implemented to the human service profession.
Practically, there exist innumerable elements of HIPAA that often gets based on the privacy rule. Worth mentioning, the privacy rule protects entire health information of patients. The mentioned protected heath information abbreviated as PHI includes individual identifiable health often transmitted through a covered unit in specified formats. The formats primarily include oral statements, paper, and electronic. Elements of HIPAA most importantly stipulate that the chief responsibility of the privacy rule is to; substantially define and subsequently limit the conditions under which the PHI of an individual may get disclosed by the contained entities. Prevalently, a covered entity may not disclose protected health information to others except when the privacy rule requires or permits. Also, the PHI can only get disclosed upon authorization by the subject of the PHI. Moreover, an HIPAA- compliant authorization must often enclose definite information needed by the privacy rules (Beik, 2012). Essentially, a covered entity gets often obliged to avail individuals or even their private representatives with access to their protected health information. Moreover, the covered entity must always provide an account of the specific disclosure on their protected health to others upon their request. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act assert that privacy rule surpasses state laws. Nonetheless, state laws that provide significant privacy fortifications or that issue individuals superior access to their protected health information remains in effect.
There exist myriad exemptions of the law that permit disclosure of patient private information without their consent. For instance, when an individual becomes incapacitated or even in an emergency, providers often disclose the PHI without authorization. The cited is always on the best interest of the individual as stipulated by the health care provider upon the implementation of clinical judgment. Typically, the PHI that gets disclosed under the cited provision often comprises the name of the patient, limited and universal information pertaining to the individual’s condition. Also, it discloses the location of the health care giver’s facility. Additionally, when the disclosure gets required by law as well as through court order or state statute, the PHI of the patient is often provided without authorization. The law stipulates that, providers might disclose protected health information that they consider to be an essential in lowering or even prohibiting imminent and serious physical threat to an individual (Leo, 2004). Also, the law permits providers to disclose the PHI to relevant authorities of the government in limited situations concerning domestic violence, victim’s abuse, and neglect. Moreover, the law grants health care providers to disclose protected health information to the relevant health oversight agencies such as the government agency. The cited government agency often licenses the health provider. Health oversight agencies use the PHI for lawfully authorized health oversight functions including investigations and audit. Finally, providers may prevalently disclose PHI to law enforcement when alerting the suggested law enforcers about a criminal behavior in the premise of an HIPAA covered entity.
Emphatically, the principles of HIPAA can be undeniably applied to the human service profession. HIPAA, which aims at protecting the privacy of patients, can get implemented in the human service profession since it aims at improving the life of a patient while maintaining utmost privacy. The privacy rule limits the circumstances of PHI disclosure. In the human service profession, the privacy rule could be applied to establish the relevant boundaries and information that an individual could disseminate in providing advancements to specific entities. Most importantly, HIPAA aims at improving health care. The cited improvements can get translated and applied in the human service profession to increase performance and necessary services.
In conclusion, HIPAA has significantly enhanced healthcare. The cited enhancements have majorly got instigated by the essential principles which employ utmost privacy in patients’ health information. Additionally, the elements of HIPAA provide vivid guidelines on patient personal health information. Categorically, HIPAA gives myriad encounters where a health provider gets permitted to disclose relevant information without the consent of the patient. The encounters often get supported by the laws of the federal state. The mentioned greatly reveals how the patients get treated with much esteem. Moreover, HIPAA penalizes health providers who violate the principles set. The penalties are often by means of civil monetary penalty or criminal penalties. Also, HIPAA can relevantly be applied in human service profession. HIPAA has, therefore, significantly transformed the health care.
References
Beik, J. I. (2012). Health Insurance Today: A Practical Approach. China: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Leo, R. A. (2004). The HIPAA Program Reference Handbook. USA: CRC Press.
