HIPAA Compliance: Detailed Overview, Significance, and Regulations

This report provides a comprehensive overview of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance, a crucial aspect of healthcare. It begins with an introduction to HIPAA, highlighting its role in addressing insurance coverage and protecting patient health information (PHI). The report details HIPAA's significance in the healthcare sector, emphasizing its role in streamlining administrative processes, ensuring data security, and facilitating the secure sharing of electronic health records. It outlines the regulations enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights, emphasizing the Act's importance for patients, healthcare providers, and researchers. The report also covers the Act's compliance requirements, including patient rights regarding access to and control over their health information. It further explores the role of HIPAA in research, detailing the requirements for obtaining patient consent and the conditions under which PHI can be used for research purposes. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of patient confidentiality and ethical behavior in healthcare, highlighting HIPAA's role in protecting patient privacy and ensuring accountability. References to relevant research papers are also provided.

Running head: HIPAA COMPLIANCE 1
HIPAA Compliance
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HIPAA Compliance 2
Introduction
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is revolutionary legislation
that was presented in the year 1996 to address insurance coverage for unemployed people [1].
The HIPAA outlines the lawful disclosure and use of protected health information hence
preventing healthcare schemes and guarantee all protected health data is properly protected to
limit access to health information to unauthorized personnel [2]. The compliance Act is managed
by the department of health and human services and imposed by the office for civil rights.
HIPAA is essential in the healthcare sector as it helps in the conversion from paper
accounts to soft copies of health data. It has facilitated the streamlining of the administrative
healthcare roles, ensure efficacy, and enable secure sharing of the health data records [2]. All
HIPAA protected entities utilize the same set of codes and nationwide standard identifiers which
help significantly with the sharing of electronic health data between health plans, medical
practitioners and healthcare researchers among other relevant entities [3].
HIPAA is essential to patients as it ensures that health plans, healthcare providers and
clearinghouses, and other healthcare commercial entities of HIPAA-covered associates enforce
various precautions to guard sensitive data of the patients. The Act has established guidelines
that require the organization to regulate individuals who have access to the health records and
limiting who the information can be shared with [4]. The Act ensures that data generated by
healthcare organizations are subject to strict control. According to the Act, the patient has control
of who can access the information and who it can be shared to. The act also ensures
accountability in their recording since the patient can obtain copies of the health information to
check for any mistakes. Getting a copy of their health records also is vital to individuals who

HIPAA Compliance 3
would like to seek treatment in other healthcare organizations where they can request a transfer
of their data [5].
The Act compliance date for healthcare providers and facilities was on 14th April 2003.
Researchers are required to comply with the act by ensuring that the revelation of personal health
data should be at minimal level that is needed to undertake research. To use a person’s private
well-being data, the HIPAA confidentiality rule has two primary agreements that are used to
secure the permission of the concerned party for the disclosure and use of their health data [5].
First documents required is a personal consent form written by patient for the use and revelation
of their data for treatment, compensation, and any other healthcare functions in a non-research
facility. The additional agreement is authorization for the use of the personal health data for
other purposes other than treatment and payment, for instance, in research studies [2,]. The
HIPAA privacy further outlines various conditions under which the information may be lawfully
used for research purposes.
To conclude, the right to secrecy during treatment, payments by insurance covers and
research has been recognized as a foundation to ethical behavior in the healthcare sector. People
wish to be consulted regarding the usage of their health data in research, and the relevant bodies
are required that their confidentiality and dignity is protected when utilizing the data. Therefore,
the HIPAA has created the extended privileges for research subjects and essential authorized
responsibilities when protected health data is being used in researches.
References

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1) A. Rothstein, Mark. "Is deidentification sufficient to protect health privacy in
research?" The American Journal of Bioethics 10.9 (2010): 3-11.
2) A. Tovino, Stacey. "The HIPAA privacy rule and the EU GDPR: illustrative
comparisons." Seton Hall L. Rev. 47 (2016): 973.
3) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. "CLIA program and HIPAA
privacy rule; patients' access to test reports. Final rule." Federal register 79.25 (2014):
7289.
4) N. Terry. "Health privacy is difficult but not impossible in a post-HIPAA data-driven
world." Chest 146.3 (2014): 835-840.
5) J. Solove, Daniel. "HIPAA turns 10: analyzing the past, present, and future impact."
(2013).