HEALTHCARE POLICY EVALUATION (HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 1996)

Running head: HEALTH CARE POLICY EVALUATION
HEALTH CARE POLICY EVALUATION (HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY
AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 1996)
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1HEALTHCARE POLICY EVALUATION
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Discussion............................................................................................................................2
Part 1................................................................................................................................2
Part 2................................................................................................................................4
Part 3................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 1996 (HIPAA) is a legal
framework for ensuring confidentiality in personal patient data and for enhancing insurance
coverage (Cohen & Mello, 2018). The purpose and aim of the following paper is to evaluate the
cost effectiveness, equity and financial soundness of the HIPAA, its surrounding ethical,
political, legal factors and nursing perspectives, its relation to state, federal and global health
policy frameworks and the possible nursing strategies and moral obligations to ensure health
promotion.
Discussion
Part 1
The primary aim of the HIPAA is to describe the standards of health information privacy
and insurance coverage. HIPAA aims to ensure cost effectiveness and healthcare equity through
the provision of insurance coverage for citizens who encounter a loss of their jobs (Freundlich,
Freundlich & Drolet, 2018). According to Walker and Druss (2017), unemployment is associated
with a loss of income and hence, a difficulty to afford healthcare services. Hence, as researched
by Drolet et al., (2017), by proving insurance coverage during such conditions, HIPAA ensures
that individuals with employment issues continue to receive financially feasible, quality
healthcare devoid of discrimination. According to Simon, Soni and Cawley (2017), group health
insurance plans encompassing insurance coverage for a number of individuals often impose
restrictions on benefits for individuals who have pre-existing conditions. Pre-existing conditions
generally exist in the form of long term health issues which require expensive and prolonged

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medical treatments (Pesco et al., 2017). The HIPAA ensures cost effectiveness and equity by
administrating limitations on the extent to which such group coverage plans can restrict coverage
benefits to individuals with pre-existing conditions (Soni, 2018). Hence individuals with pre-
existing conditions, due to the HIPAA can continue to receive quality healthcare at rates
beneficial for their financial abilities and without any discrimination considering their unique
health condition needs (Vistnes & Cohen, 2018).
Hence, this legal framework is financially sound since it ensures that individuals with
difficulties in employment or with pre-existing health conditions are not discriminated in terms
of their accessibility to health resources and that financial constraints do not interfere with their
rights to receive quality health care (Valentino, 2017). Further, by safeguarding health
informatics associated patient data, the HIPPAA contributes to financial soundness by preventing
the detrimental financial implications prevalent in security breaches (American Academy of
Pediatrics, 2016).
While implementing policies associated with HIPAA, the nurse must adhere to ethical
duties of ensuring the non-disclosure of patient information fed into health information
technology. The nurse must also adhere to political factors of the Privacy Rule of the HIPAA
where he or she must obtain consent from the patient prior to storing personal information or
disclosing it to healthcare organizations (Cannon & Caldwell, 2016). Further, during
implementation of this policy, the nurse must consider legal factors where he or she may be
required to breach confidentiality and exercise nursing autonomy in situations of elderly or child
abuse, wounds from stabs or gunshots, crime injuries or infectious diseases (McKnight &
Franko, 2016).