...Article Review: HIPAA breaches: minimizing risks and patient fears Student Name HCS/335 March 13, 2013 Instructor Name Article Review: HIPAA breaches: minimizing risks and patient fears The article, “HIPPA breaches: minimizing risks and patient fears”, by Gabby Loria who is a Market Research Associate for Software Advice, is an industry view case study of concerns that patients have in relation to potential security risks related to health care. Patient privacy and medical document security are the main topics of this article. The article discusses the importance of provider confidentiality, proper handling of health information along with proposed solutions for potential security issues. There is a focus on the patients perception of what is considered to be protected. Loria points out that forty-five percent of patients are apprehensive about security gaps involved with their private health information (Loria, G., 2015). Protected Health Information: Patient Privacy Concern The potential breach in HIPPA, Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act of 1996, brings up several patient privacy concerns. One consideration is the method that the patient’s health data is distributed and utilized. Electronic health records are at risk of security breaches from hackers without adequate safety measure in place. According to Loria, (2015), “In January, health insurance provider Anthem discovered that hackers had broken into a database containing...
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...How To Avoid Data Breach? How do data breaches occur? • we suspect our information system has been • targeted and patient information exposed. After one a laptop and other portable device is lost or stolen. • We did a rapid assessment to mitigation of damage and is and define scope of the incident we discovered following facts: – – – – data are not encrypted laptop are not protected by password Information of patients are exposed. No log file exist What are consequences of these breaches ? A data security breach can have devastating consequences for healthcare organizations as well as patients or clients What are our strategies to prevent theses breaches • We must be in compliance with the final HIPAA Omnibus Rule through following : – Administrative safeguards – Physical safeguards – Technical safeguards What is HIPAA? • HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act • It was passed by Congress in 1996 • broadly applicable to the health care industry • intended to address security for both electronic and physical patient records • standardizing electronic exchange of administrative & financial data in health care system • It includes requirements for: • Transfer and continuation of health insurance coverage • Reducing healthcare fraud and waste – The protection and confidential handling of protected health information (PHI) What is a breach? – A breach is an impermissible use or disclosure that compromises the security or privacy of PHI and poses a significant...
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...The Need for Information Security, Technical Innovation and Clinical Change. 1 The Need for Information Security, Technical Innovation and Clinical Change ISM 3011– Information Systems Management Abstract The Tri-County Life Care of the Treasure Coast (TLC) is a non-profit organization providing in-home health-care services throughout Florida's Indian River, Brevard, and northern St. Lucie Counties. TLC has been serving this community for over thirty years, but what truly makes us unique is our tradition of providing comprehensive health-care—whenever and wherever our patients need it. Tri-County Life Care, Inc. offers the highest quality and most reliable in home wellness care in the convenience and comfort of client home. (TLC) have been providing superior service to there clients and have help them in achieving their goals. Whatever your needs are, TLC home health team will design a plan that is specific to you and your situation. Whenever your health needs can be met at home, TLC staff is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Owners and officers representing TLC are Chief Executive Officer - Eric Maar, Chief Financial Officer - Satchell Peterkin, Chief Technology Officer - Raquel Queen, and Chief Information Officer - Kerry Cosner. These individuals are committed to providing the clinical staff with the most technologically advanced tools available to effect patient care in the most advantageous way possible...
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...Administrative Ethics Jeff Andrews HCS/335 March 18, 2012 Gail Garren, MSN, RN, CPHQ Administrative Ethics In administrative health care today, there are constant occurrences of ethical issues in the everyday behaviors. As health care administrators, we have responsibilities to ourselves, the organization, the patients, and our employees. The increasing information technology, which is the future, can be an ethical concern to administrators of the confidentiality of information on patients. Confidential information is private or privileged information, and should be that luxury. In health care, the confidential information that is stored into an information system, such as a patient health record, will need the ethical awareness, knowledge, and decision making skills of managing confidential information is the administrator’s responsibility. Managing confidential records will require the education of all staff within the facility. This would be the education on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. HIPAA and HITECH laws will be mentioned in this report as well as, an article from a local news station on a breach of patient confidential records, the issue and the impact is had on the population, the facts that are used to support the article and its solution, the ethical and legal issues for the administrative issue, the managerial responsibilities...
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...confidentiality regulations, and also briefly talks about different types of patient confidentiality situation. Confidential information is a main concern among patients; it is their medical information which is at stake here in their minds, but is that all that is at stake? The confidentiality privacy act is known as HIPAA, which is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. This act was passed by congress to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to reduce costs and the administrative burdens of health care by improving efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system by standardizing the interchange of electronic data for specified administrative and financial transactions, To ensure protecting the privacy of Americans’ personal health records by protecting the security and confidentiality of health care information and to ensure protecting the privacy of Americans’ personal health records by protecting the security and confidentiality of health care information (Ramick, 2011). The main point of creating the HIPAA act is to insure patient privacy and the...
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...Cybersecurity Principles Assignment 3 Due by 2pm, October 29 (Thursday) Data breaches happening in healthcare can cause severe damage. This assignment looks at different sets of data submitted to the Department of Human Services whenever a breach affects 500 or more individuals. (https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf) You have each been assigned a “filter” to research and assess. For the filer you are assigned, make a report that includes the following information: 1. Describe the web site and the policy/legislation under which the organization is required to report their breaches Department of health and human services, office of civil rights websites, where as required by section 13402(e)(4) of the HITECH Act, the Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. These breaches are now posted in a new, more accessible format that allows users to search and sort the posted breaches. 2. Describe how the organization must file their report. Includes brief summaries of the breach cases that OCR has investigated and closed, as well as the names of private practice providers who have reported breaches of unsecured protected health information to the Secretary. 3. Name of the filter designated. 2015 4. How many breaches did you identify as a result of the filter There are about 223 breaches for 500 or more. 5. Select one result that catches your interest and describe...
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...A Critical Regulatory Issue in Health Care A Critical Regulatory Issue in Health Care Congress grants agencies the ability to create regulations to promote and carry out public policy (Fremgen, 2012). A critical health care regulatory issue in today’s world is The Privacy and Security Rule. The Privacy Rule, 45 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 160 and Subparts A and E of Part 164 govern the privacy of individually identifiable health information and the security of electronic individually identifiable health information. CFR 45 Part 160 is otherwise known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). HIPAA enacted in 1996, outlines the conditions protected health information (PHI) may be used or released by covered entities or individuals. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) enforces the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule, modified in 2002 and 2003, set standards for protecting the integrity and confidentiality of PHIs covered entities must follow. Medical organizations and their employees have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect patients’ medical privacy at all times. Health care facilities and employees who fail to implement effective privacy rules and regulations are subject to fines, accreditation problems, and possible suits from affected individuals. Facilities and government agencies are liable to HHS for fines but also the...
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...MIS 671 CASE STUDY 2 AN INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY BREACH AT FIRST FREEDOM CREDIT UNION Introduction The case is about an information system security breach at First Freedom Credit Union, a financial institution in the Southern part of the United States. First Choice Credit Union (FFCU has seven branches located throughout the metropolitan area. One branch is located at the FFFCU headquarters. Most employees at the FFCU has at least 5 years of service. The credit card information of 200,000 members has been stolen. This is highly sensitive information and it puts the members at critical risk. The security breach might cause loss of finances and other disturbances. Frank Sanders, the CEO of FFCU called a conference with all the executives of the FFCU. The nature of the conference was to discuss a security breach. A security breach that affected card member credit card numbers and personal information. Frank was uncertain if the breach had affected all members’ information or a portion. However, Frank was aware that fraudulent activity had already taken place on some accounts. Due to the fraudulent activity that had transpired Frank had canceled all current credit cards and was sending out replacement cards. Jaime O’ Dell, the chief information officer (CIO) was appalled because nothing had ever happened like this since his tenure with the company. Jaime felt the firewall being used was the top of the line, virus protested was updated daily and an intrusion detection...
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...HCS/335 09/08/2014 Claudia Unrein Administrative Ethics Paper A patient’s electronic protected health information is an important issue when it comes to privacy for the patients and physicians. “Communicating with patients using mobile devices such as Blackberrys, iPhones, iPads, or Android phones is fast growing trend among healthcare providers” (Barrett, 2011) . In the world today physicians and patients are using mobile devices an order to communicate with each other more and more. This of course raises distresses when it comes to the security of protected health information. This article discusses the issue on security by the use of electronic transfer of protected health information between health care providers and patients and also how those issues may cross HIPAA Security Rule. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was establish in 1996, in order to protect the privacy and security of patient’s health information. “The Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information (the Security Rule) establish a national set of security standards for protecting certain health information that is held or transferred in electronic form” (U.S Department of Health & Human Services, n.d). There are many reasons why the use of mobile devices triggers the HIPAA Security Rule. Unauthorized disclosure of protect health information is very much at risk because mobile devices can only store in two ways: within the phone...
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...of privacy and security requirements under the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, healthcare organizations face key compliance challenges, including dealing with their business associates and ensuring that patient information is adequately protected to avoid breaches. The healthcare sector, as well as government sector systems handling health-related data, are increasingly targets of cybercriminals because of the information those systems contain, which ranges from Social Security numbers to health insurance identification numbers. What are healthcare entities' key struggles? What are they doing to step up compliance while also improving overall protection of patient data? We conducted our third annual Healthcare Information Security Today survey to find out. The 2014 survey sheds light on seven hot topics: * HIPAA Omnibus: Compliance is Challenging * Breach Prevention: Trend Analysis * Risk Assessments: Getting Better or Cutting Corners? * Encryption and Authentication: Room for Improvement * Mobile Tech: Inadequate Protection * Web Portals: Work in Progress * Priorities, Investments and Staffing Keeping records secure is a challenge that doctors, public health officials and federal regulators are just beginning to grasp. And, as two recent incidents at Howard University Hospital show, inadequate data security can affect huge numbers of people. On May 14, federal prosecutors one of the hospital’s medical technicians with violating the Health Insurance Portability...
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...Ethical Healthcare Issues HCS545 May 11th, 2015 Ethical Healthcare Issues Ethical issues arise in all types of industry no matter the magnitude of the issue decisions will have to be made regarding it. The health care industry is no different, some of those ethical issues include patient privacy (or lack of), transplant allocation, refusal of care, patient dumping, access of care, biomedical research and patient noncompliance with treatment. For this paper I will focus on patient privacy, the ethical issue of patient privacy is how patient information is getting leaked unintentionally. An examination of how each of the four major ethical principles can be applied towards this issue will be provided. Patient Privacy The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) original intents were to enable workers to change jobs without fear of losing health care coverage (Liebler & McConnell, 2012), but HIPAA is more commonly known for protecting patient privacy. When organizations had to be HIPAA compliant by April 14, 2003 those organizations were required to train employees in the proper handling of protected health information (PHI), publish policies and procedures addressing the handling of patient medical information (Liebler & McConnell, 2012) . Any release of patient information for purposes other than treatment, payment, or operations requires written authorization (Buppert, 2002). Under the patient privacy rule EVERYTHING is protected, diagnosis...
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...information important? •How will you use this information in the future? On April 14, 2003 the Health Insurance portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) took effect, and these federal regulation have had an impact on the field of healthcare. It affords certain protections to persons covered by health care plans, including continuity of coverage when changing jobs, standards for electronic health care transactions, and primary safeguards for the privacy of individually identifiable patient information. Protecting healthcare information is the key essential in a healthcare organization. In an Internet video, Barclay (2010) states it is imperative that all healthcare providers be knowledgeable about the HIPAA standards and protect the rights of patients and residents. However, patients also have the responsibilities to give accurate information about their condition and to participate in treatment and care. With that being said the doctrine of informed consent allows patients full disclosure to make a knowledgeable decision about their care. Failure of patient confidentiality gives rise to legal liability. Identifying different forms of security breaches and creating measures to safeguards standards, procedure and policies against leaking personal health information (PHI) will maintain and promote growth of an organization. Identifying different forms of security breaches and instituting measures to implement and safeguard specific standards, policies, and procedures...
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...A Literature Review “Privacy and Health Information Technology” Deborah Jones Dr. Udoh Udom Health Information Systems HAS 520 12/06/10 Introduction The increased use of health information technology (Health IT) is a common element of privacy of medical information. Proponents hope that the increased use of health IT will improve health outcomes for individual patients by facilitating the delivery of evidence-based care and reducing medical errors. Additionally, proponents hope that increasing information sharing among providers will better coordinate care within and across health care settings. Health IT facilitates the creation of a comprehensive health record that can move with an individual over his or her lifetime, in contrast to the fragmented records that exist today. Further, health IT is promoted as a critical tool for improving population health by allowing for the more efficient gathering of data regarding the effectiveness of certain treatments. Finally, health IT is also expected to help decrease health costs by reducing the duplication of services and the delivery of unnecessary or inappropriate care. This paper examines some of the “gaps” in privacy protections that arise out of the current federal health privacy standard, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, the main federal law which governs the use and disclosure of health information. Additionally, it puts forth a range of possible solutions, accompanied by...
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...privacy and confidentiality is extremely import and a constantly evolving aspect of health care. Since 2010 The Texas Medical Center has had 5 major breaches of security resulting in the unauthorized access to over 50,000 patients. According to the American Medical Association's (AMA) Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, "The purpose of a physician's ethical duty to maintain patient confidentiality is to allow the patient to feel free to make a full and frank disclosure of information to the physician with the knowledge that the physician will protect the confidential nature of the information disclosed (AMA, 2003)." But physicians cannot completely control access to electronic records. If patients fear their records will not be private, they might tell their doctors less, or even refuse to seek care. The Health Privacy Project study of the homeless revealed that homeless patients would not go for care if certain information were requested (AMA, 2003). There are several different types of threats to patient privacy. Some are more severe than others. You have individuals that accidentally disclose information through innocent mistakes, individuals who have record access privileges that abuse this authorization, you also have individuals who access this information solely out of spite or to use it for a financial gain. You also have unauthorized physical attacks on the security system as well as individuals who look to damage the operating systems and disrupt...
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...NUT1 Task 2 A. Increase in Quality of Care Electronic Medical Records (EMR) can increase quality of care in many ways. Unlike paper records, EMR is available to multiple members of the healthcare team in different locations, all at the same time. EMR makes it easy for caregivers to have all of a new patient’s previous visit information at their fingertips, which can help with obtaining a more accurate history upon admission. An accurate history will help caregivers make better decisions when planning a patient’s care. Because records are stored in a database instead of on paper, they are safe from natural disasters, forgery, loss, or damage. Many, many years of records can be stored in a relatively small space, which will negate the need for rows and rows of filing cabinets, and microfiche. This makes them easier to manage and retrieve. Less paper also means neater workspaces and better organization in the workplace, and because records are available on the database from multiple locations, the need for faxing or mailing records is decreased, increasing security. EMR can also be used to collect data for Quality Improvement processes, and an EMR system can have pop-up alerts built in to notify caregivers of best practices, allergies, and drug interactions. EMR’s that also have a medication bar code scanning system built in will help to reduce med errors by alerting nurses to wrong patient/wrong dose/ wrong time errors. Electronic Medical Records can reduce patient’s wait...
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