Protecting Health Information

Impact of the Law Protecting Health Information

According to Cohen and Mello (2018), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is the law that protects an individual’s health information. Examples of the protected health information identified by HIPAA include current and past medical history, demographics, laboratory and imaging tests, diagnosis, and treatment plans (Moore & Frye, 2019). The HIPAA has increased the privacy and confidentiality of patients’ protected health information. This is significant because most healthcare facilities use electronic health record systems, which would otherwise predispose patients’ information to unauthorized personnel. HIPAA ensures that only authorized healthcare practitioners, patients, and their families access personal health information.

Areas of Concern

There are several areas of concern regarding protected health information. According to the CDT (n.d.), automated surveillance technologies in healthcare increase the likelihood of unauthorized access to protected health information. Furthermore, automated surveillance technologies discriminate against disabled people who cannot use the technology appropriately (Brown et al., 2022). These technologies are used to track compliance, make predictive analytics, and verify patients. Predictive analytics are commonly used for persons with mental illnesses. This implies that personal health information is used by unauthorized people who participate in these analytics. The CDT (n.d.) also reports that the privacy and well-being of students are not considered when mental health surveys are done.

Recommendations for Future Efforts in Protecting Health Information

Future efforts to protect health information should focus on patient education. The public should be aware of their rights to access their health information. Additionally, patients and the public should engage stakeholders such as healthcare to understand the measures put up to uphold privacy and confidentiality. Sharing of permissible health information should occur among authorized personnel. Each healthcare practitioner should have individualized security logins to increase accountability. Notably, optimized sharing of this information will improve coordination in patient care and achieve better patient outcomes.

References

Brown, L. X. Z., Shetty, R., Scherer, M. U., & Crawford, A. (2022). Ableism And Disability Discrimination in New Surveillance Technologies. May. https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-05-23-CDT-Ableism-and-Disability-Discrimination-in-New-Surveillance-Technologies-report-final-redu.pdf

The Center for Democracy and Technology. (n.d). Health Privacy. https://cdt.org/area-of-focus/privacy-data/health-privacy/

Cohen, I. G., & Mello, M. M. (2018). HIPAA and Protecting Health Information in the 21st Century. JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association, 320(3), 231–232. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.5630

Moore, W., & Frye, S. (2019). Review of HIPAA, Part 1: History, Protected Health Information, and Privacy and Security Rules. Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology, 47(4), 269–272. https://doi.org/10.2967/JNMT.119.227819

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