HSM 230 Week 9 Capstone Checkpoint
A very important issue in all of our lives is health insurance. There are many facets to the issue, availability of health care being one. But another important issue for those that do have health care is privacy of medical information. Rules governing the control, manipulation, and transfer of personal medical information are governed by HIPAA. One significant quandary is that of abortion. There are many people in favor of abortion and just as many people against it. Whether or not abortion happens is just one side of the issue. The other side is disclosure. It is very difficult to know when an abortion should be disclosed to individuals close to the woman considering the abortion. In addition, when disclosure is warranted the subsequent question arises, "What people close to the young woman should be informed?” As a manager of a health service organization this situation arises often. A clear set of rules must be in place to deal with the issue. In addition these rules must be consistent with laws relating to abortion. In fact HIPAA lays the ground work for decisions in these cases. Not only does it give us guidelines on dealing with issues like abortion but more generally it is a moral code that provides a paradigm for the behavior and actions of human service workers. A statement of these rules as in HIPAA is not enough. Human service workers must be trained so that their activities are consistent with the rules. Furthermore there must accountability, not only to reprimand and/or develop staff, but also to provide a mechanism to change the HIPAA laws if