Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule

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Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule

Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet

As a professional nurse, you are expected to apply your expertise to patient care. On occasion, you will also be expected to share that expertise.

With evolving technology and continuous changes to regulations designed to keep up these changes, there is usually a need to share information and expertise to inform colleagues, leadership, patients, and other stakeholders.

In this Assignment, you will study a recent nursing informatics-related healthcare policy, and you will share the relevant details via a fact sheet designed to inform and educate. Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule.

To Prepare:

  • Review the Resources on healthcare policy and regulatory/legislative topics related to health and nursing informatics.
  • Consider the role of the nurse informaticist in relation to a healthcare organization’s compliance with various policies and regulations, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
  • Research and select one health or nursing informatics policy (within the past 5 years) or regulation for further study.

The Assignment: (1 page)

Create a 1-page fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the following:

  • Briefly and generally explain the policy or regulation you selected.
  • Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on system implementation.
  • Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on clinical care, patient/provider interactions, and workflow.
  • Highlight organizational policies and procedures that are/will be in place at your healthcare organization to address the policy or regulation you selected. Be specific. Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule

 

No Running Head. APA style. Please ensure intext-citations and references are up to APA style. No references older than 5 years. Please include doi for any references dated after 2013.

 

HIPAA Policies

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal privacy rule that protects individuals from specific health information that is identifiable. The rule permits, though not obligates, covered healthcare providers to avail to their patients, the option to disclose their health information for specific purposes. The specific purposes include health care operations, payment, and treatment (DHHS, 2019). Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule

Impact of HIPAA on System Implementation, Clinical Care and Workflow

HIPAA protects privacy at different levels. Chen & Benusa (2017), note that breaches in healthcare data can cause adverse social and personal impacts for patients as well as their families. These breaches can incur large monetary costs that can affect both the Wall Street as well as health care organization investors (Jackson, 2015). Implementation requires that management and protection of private data should encompass machine learning and AI, allow for anonymization of healthcare genomic data while preserving utility; and ensure sensitive data does not leak.

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HIPAA protects patients and in some cases, healthcare provider information. The ‘seven habits’ format for ensuring that HIPAA guidelines are in compliance when delivering services and for workflow are used. The seven habits include documenting the policy and controlling the environment; assigning appropriate oversight for compliance management; ensuring compliance through communication and training; implementation of regular auditing, monitoring, and control; consistent enforcement of control environment; regular screening of personnel; and preventing and responding to gaps and incidence (Joshi, 2008) Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule. Figure 1 shows a representative workflow

Source: Joshi, (2008)

 

Organizational Policies and Procedures

The healthcare institution will ensure that it develops, adopts, and implements the HIPAA privacy and security procedures and policies by first documenting the same. This will include taking steps when a breach takes place and appointing a security and privacy officer. The officer will need to be well-versed with the HIPAA policies and regulations. Regular assessments for risks will be conducted at random times and frequencies, to identify if any vulnerabilities exist. Doing so will ensure that integrity and confidentiality are maintained with regard to health information. If any risks are identified, remediation and policies’ revision will be done if necessary. Any breaches that are identified will be documented and investigation results notified to relevant authorities. Additionally, all email containing health information and requested by a patient will be encrypted and patients made aware of the purpose of encryption in protecting their privacy. Portable devices containing health information will be regulated with regard to their removal from the healthcare facility Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule. Additionally, a Notice of Privacy Practices will be published and displayed on the healthcare facility’s website and also made available for distribution to the patients.
Reference

Chen, J. Q., & Benusa, A. (2017). HIPAA security compliance challenges: The case for small healthcare providers. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 10(2), 135-146.

Department of  Health and Human Services (2019). Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/laws-regulations/index.html

Jackson, J. (2015). The Costs of Medical Privacy Breach. MD advisor: a journal for New Jersey medical community, 8(3), 4-12.

Joshi, S. (2008). HIPAA, HIPAA, Hooray?: Current Challenges and Initiatives in Health Informatics in the United States. Biomedical informatics insights, 1, BII-S2007.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4943069/#!po=8.33333    Assignment: Policy/Regulation Fact Sheet: HIPAA Security Rule