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Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act HIPAA  Essay

¶ … Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 provided for the better management of health information as well as increased health coverage for target entities. Of particular emphasis the law has is the privacy and security of health information. Prior to the implementation of HIPAA, there was an ad hoc management of health information and health coverage is very limited. Often disparate policies and standards are used from one medical institution to another or by the different private and public organizations. HIPAA provided the standards and detailed how health information should be protected to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability thereof depending on the given situation. In particular, HIPAA details a patient's access to his or her medical records based on the general principles for disclosure. Two guiding principles cover disclosure and not only to patients but to covered entities; these principles are: "(a) to individuals (or their personal representatives) specifically when they request access to, or an accounting of disclosures...

Department of Health & Human Services [DHHS], 2003)." This means that the patient have full rights to his or her health information and also the recipient thereto. The disclosure of the health information though can only be allowed with the written authorization of the patient or authorized representative.
The usage of health information is not only confined to matters pertaining to health and medicine. The HIPAA provided several provisions on where health information can be used in non-health matters and there are 12 circumstances thereto which are: (1) required by law; (2) public health activities; (3) victims of abuse, neglect or domestic violence; (4) health oversight activities; (5) judicial and administrative proceedings; (6) law enforcement purposes; (7) decedents; (8) cadaveric organ, eye, or tissue donation; (9) research; (10) serious threat to health or safety; (11) essential government functions;…

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography:

Penn Foster. Research Projects. 07 Jan. 2007. 01 Aug. 2011. <http://lessons.pennfoster.com/pdf/sp0754.pdf>.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Summary of HIPAA Privacy Rules. 13 May 2003. 01 Aug. 2011. <http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/privacysummary.pdf>.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule. 13 May 2003. 01 Aug. 2011. <http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/srsummary.html>.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Understanding Health Information Privacy. 2008. 01 Aug. 2011. <http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/index.html>.
Wilson, Mike. Study Guide: Law and Ethics in Medicine. 06 Oct. 2010. 01 Aug. 2011. <http://lessons.pennfoster.com/pdf/409924.pdf>.
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