Discussion about Impact of HIPAA and HITECH Regulations

Question: Discuss the impact of HIPAA and HITECH regulations on healthcare organizations on both state and federal levels. Discuss how HIPAA and HITECH regulations will impact healthcare systems that maintain patient data. Discuss the impact of HIPAA and HITECH regulations on software and hardware vendor. Discuss the impact of HIPAA and HITECH regulations on organizational standards and infrastructure. Answer: HIPAA is the name of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was passed in 1996. The major goal of this act is to ease the upkeeping of the insurance policies, maintain their confidentiality and simultaneously keep the health information safe for the people. It also aims in helping the health care setups and organizations to control the administrative costs. HIPAA sets forth many regulations that pertain to the type of uses and the events of disclosure of the personal identification of the individuals health information (also termed as protected health information). HIPAA works in a highly efficient manner to ensure that the disclosure of personal information is done only to allow high quality health care (CHRPHI, 2009). According to National Counsil of State Legislatures (NCSL), on March 23, 2010, President Obama had signed the Affordable Care Act, according to which there would be interoperable and safe standards as well as protocols to allow electronic admission of the individuals in the federal and state human and health service programs (NCSL, 2012). HITECH (The Health information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) is an act that aims to set new goals for expanding the role of states in stimulating the exchange of health related information and adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The goal of this act was to increase the number of health care providers by 2014 through financial incentives, training, education and actions led by the state. This act was passed in February, 2009, as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This has marked the influence and made HIE (Health Information Exchange) as the priority. HITECH has set standards by supplying substantial resources of planning, use and deployment and even has certified the HER functions (State alliance for E-heath, 2009). HITECH provides both opportunities as well as the challenges to health care providers. The implementation of EHR provides a more efficient, responsive and cost effective care system. But this is accompanied by the fear of loss of privacy and risk to security. It has provided health care organizations the authority to utilize the programs that can be used to improve the quality of health care, its safety and efficiency. One such software is Oracle, which is robust in identity management and data security solutions. It enables the organization to implement first order HIPAA/HITECH compliance programs in the division of health care emerging electronic age (Oracle white paper, 2011). The current reforms that have been introduced in HIPAA/HITECH system stress on the definition of manifestation or manifested. These reforms are expected to improve the quality of healthcare as the concept of extracting family medical history, genetic information 9with respect to the patient and the disease f rom which he is suffering), is very efficient in providing the right course of treatment (HIPAA.com, 2015). HITECH provides facilities fro the patient health information by calling for the healthcare organization, the business associates and the providers of the service to disclose if there have been any breaches (including a detailed description of the incident, time, place, how it was discovered) and other investigatory details (Capus safety, 2010). The HITECH act is now applicable and affects the business associates directly. Conventional trend was to impose the security and privacy requirements through contractual agreements with the covered entities but under the HITECH Act, the business associates are required to abide by the rules mentioned in the HIPAA Security Rule (SR). The Act allows most of the software vendors who provide HER systems, to qualify as business associates. Since the vendors will be required to comply by the rules, more vendor/provider dialog will occur with regards to the necessary Business Associate Agreements or the contracts. As a result, the vendors will insist on it themselves (HITECH Act summary, 2012). The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) regulations apply both to the paper as well as electronic records. Any breach in the notification may arise the case of penalties. There are provisions for criminal penalties for business associates as well. While HIPAA addresses mostly the health information security and the issues related to the privacy, HITECH act extends its scope by covering the non HIPAA covered entities also. Therefore, HITECH acts adds a muscle to HIPAA act and the strongest impact it has had is to encourage the healthcare force, the vendors, and the care givers to implement stronger and more secure means to protect patients data and avoid milti million dollar fines that are levied for any kind of non compliance (Campus safety, 2010). References Campus Safety. (2010). How HITECH Act may affect your healthcare facility. Retrieved on 11th March 2015 from https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/article/How-the-HITECH-Act-May-Affect-Your-Healthcare-Facility.Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information (CHRPHI): The HIPAA Privacy Rule, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Board on Health Care Services. (2009). Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule:: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research. Natioal Academic Press.HIPAA.com. (2015). HIPAA Final Rule: Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act: Manifestation or Manifested. Retrieved on 11th March 2015 from https://www.hipaa.com/hipaa-final-rule-genetic-information-nondiscrimination-act-manifestation-or-manifested/.HITECH Act summary. (2012). The HITECH Act. Retrieved on 11th March 2015 from https://www.hipaasurvivalguide.com/hitech-act-summary.php.National Conference of State Legislatures. (2012). HIPAA: Impacts and actions by states. Retrieved on 11th March 2015 from https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/hipaa-a-state-related-overview.aspx.Oracle White paper. (2011). HITECHs challenge to the health care industry. Retrieved on 11th March 2015 from https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/security/owp-security-hipaa-hitech-522515.pdf.State alliance for E-heath. (2009). Preparing to implement HITECH. National governors Association.