HIPAA
Introduction
The HIPAA is a short for of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA was passed by the US Congress in 1996 with the aim of achieving several objectives in the health sector. These included; facilitation of continuation and transfer of health insurance cover for Americans and their families in case they lose of change their jobs. The act was also meant to reduce cases of abuse and fraud in the health care sector since thousands of cases had been reported. The act also mandated the health care sector to use adopt high standards for handling health care information in processes such as electronic billing. The last objective of passing of the HIPAA was to help in protecting and promoting confidentiality when handling protected health information. HIPAA is divided into several sections, each dealing a specific health care issue.
Main problems
HIPAA has been instrumental in enhancing the lives of many Americans who become unemployed or change employers. This has been achieved by ensuring that everyone is insured regardless of whether they are employed or not. The act also helped many people by ensuring that their privacy is paramount. The billing process and other health care processes have also been improved through this act. However, this has not gone as smoothly as expected. There have been thousands of cases where patient information, which is expected to be protected, is let out to third parties. More so, there are millions of American who lost their jobs during the 2008 economic recession but have been suffering, along with their families. This is because they cannot access health care services as guaranteed under this act. Finally, the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008 saw the introduction of another health care program dubbed Obama-care. The program has almost similar objectives as the HIPAA hence; there has been confusion as to how the program functions along with a similar program already in place.
Impact of the HIPAA problems
The above mentioned problems affected service delivery of health care in various ways. The problems have negated the objectives that were meant to be achieved before the act was passed back in 1996. The issue of mishandling protected patient and other health care information has been rampant over the years. In the US, patient privacy is essential. In fact, only the patient and the doctors are allowed to handle private information. Not even the next of kin is allowed to access the information unless in special circumstances.
There have been thousands of cases where the people in charge of patient information have leaked protected information to third parties. The result has always been undesirable since it involves law breaking. People have been arraigned in court and even charged for colluding with third parties to allow protected information from the health care systems. Health information protection systems are quite complex and require well trained personnel to handle them. The professionalism of the information handlers must also be well analysed. The impact of this problem is that some patients have ended up suffering since their personal information is not well protected. The people responsible for the release of protected information have ended up going to jail for incompetence and others losing their jobs.
The other problem is about the confusion arising from the Obama-care program. The impact has not been that big but it is still felt to date. Many Americans do not understand the Obama-care program because it is a highly politicised issue. Republicans were entirely against the program and even voted against it. It was a point of discussion in both the 2008 and the 2012 elections. The public have been left wondering what it means since the democrats give an explanation, which is then negated by republicans. The impact has been that people confuse the program with the HIPAA with the assumption that they are similar.
Source of the problem
The source of the problem of leaking protected information is mainly the personnel employed to handle the information. The laws are quite clear on how the person in charge of the information must not release it to a third party. The reason why this information ends up being leaked to the public is because the hospital administrations may just be careless and ignorant. The information systems are guarded carefully. However, there are people such as hackers who can easily access protected information without even the hospital administration noticing. The other source is that the person in charge of handling the protected information may be incompetent in that they may give the wrong files to the wrong people. The hospital files are kept at a central place. Whenever information is needed, the doctor or patient go to the central place for the file. However, the person in charge might hand out more than one file out of ignorance or incompetence.
The second problem about the HIPAA is caused by the political opinions spread by politicians in the country. The Obama-care program is quite different from the HIPAA but politicians hold biased opinions when analysing it. For example, the Obama-care program has nothing to do with the protection of patient information and other privacy issues mentioned in the HIPAA. On the other hand, politicians ignore that aspect and argue that since both suggest the provision of health care insurance to the jobless and the poor, then they are similar.
Fixing the problem
Provided that there is a chance to solve the problems arising from the HIPAA, there are a series of factors one would have to consider. The solution to the violation of the privacy policy is to emphasize on protection of the data storage systems. The information is usually stored in both electronic and hard copy. The hospitals should acquire services of experienced computer system developers to develop a very secure system that would not allow a hacker to access protection information. This will solve a large percentage of cases of fraud and even loss of private information. Secondly, there would be a need to give the people in charge of protected information frequent training on how to do their work. This will prevent cases of ignorance and incompetence hence; there will be no loss of protected information.
The HIPAA and Obama-care are two different policies. Therefore, the solution to the confusion problem would be to enlighten the public on the two policies. The politicians should also be advised to base their arguments on facts and details of each policy rather than arguing for the sake of tarnishing one another’s reputation on policy making.
Positive impacts
The impacts of the solutions provided above would be instant reduction in the number of cases of privacy violation. Competent health care workers and a secure system would ensure that no information is accessed by people who do not deserve to see it. The clarification of the difference between Obama-care and the HIPAA would also help the public understand that the HIPAA is still and independent policy that protects their welfare in the healthcare sector.
Negative impacts
There are no potential negative impacts as per the suggestion on how to enhance security of protected information. However, the costs of frequent training of personnel and the development of a new system is quite high. The other problem associated with the confusion of HIPAA and Obama-care is that it is difficult to stop politicians from publicising their opinions.
Barriers
There are a few barriers to this proposal on privacy and protected information. First, the costs to be incurred will be high since there is a need to prepare, train people and develop new secure systems. The second barrier is that this is a law. In order to make changes, one must go through the US congress. The chances of convincing the whole congress to pass and approve the changes are quite low. The source of this barrier is that it is an Act of Congress hence; it can only be changed by Congress. The barrier to the second problem is that opinions on Obama-care are political in nature. Politicians cannot be influenced, especially when they are trying to win public appeal. Furthermore, politicians reserve the right to pass these laws hence; they can insert new clauses in the act in the future.
Conclusion
HIPAA, therefore, is an essential act that has helped improve the lives of millions of Americans over the years. However, it has presented some challenges in the form of loss of protected information and patient privacy. The source of this problem is mainly poor data storage and incompetence by employees. This can be solved by developing new data storage system that are secure and providing frequent training of employees to keep their competence levels high. However, changes to the HIPAA can only be effected by Congress hence; it is difficult to make changes. The HIPAA is also confused with the Obama-care program. This is caused by the opinions spread by politicians in their arguments. This can be solved by asking politicians to be honest in their arguments. However, influencing politicians is difficult since their aim is in itself to influence the public and earn support.
References
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2012). HIPAA General Information. Retrieved June 26, 2013, from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/HIPAA-Administrative-Simplification/HIPAAGenInfo/index.html?redirect=/hipaageninfo/
Doscher, M. (2002). Hipaa: A Short- And Long-Term Perspective for Health Care. Boston: Amer Medical Assoc.
National Institutes of Health. (2010). HIPAA Privacy Rule. Retrieved June 26, 2013, from National Institutes of Health: http://privacyruleandresearch.nih.gov/
Sullivan, J. M. (2004). Hipaa: A Practical Guide to the Privacy And Security of Health Data. Boston: American Bar Association.
