A review into the evolution of HIPAA in response to evolving technological environments

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was brought in to serve as a legislation that could essentially assist in reorganizing the flow of healthcare information, prescribing how sensitive medical data stored with healthcare/insurance firms should be protected from stealing and tampering. It has served as a pioneer in the world of privacy in healthcare and set one of the earliest benchmarks for any legal instruments regarding the storing and dissemination of medical information in the form of electronic health records. The HITECH act of 2009 and the HIPAA omnibus rule of 2013 further cemented the use of standardized frameworks which can help control, reduce and track any possible breaches of confidentiality and integrity of such personal information. This paper explores the content, reasoning, and timeline of the HIPAA act and the impact it creates on the health information technology sector. It also explains the challenges that are faced in the implementation of the policy and gives a holistic perspective of the rights and responsibilities of each stakeholder involved.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Diffusion and an Examination of Physician Resistance

Since the enactment of the United States Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009, there has been substantial progress in the diffusion of electronic health record (EHR) systems in medical clinics throughout the United States. Many physicians, however, continue to resist adopting EHR technology despite several accepted, long-term benefits and available government-sponsored financial incentives. The objective of this chapter is to provide insight into the question as to why physicians are resistant to adopting EHR technology. This chapter details several of the benefits of EHR systems and uses a systematic review of literature to critically analyze and detail the most common perceived physician barriers to the adoption of EHRs. With the awareness of the major physician barriers to the adoption of EHR technology, stakeholders and policymakers can address barriers and pursue actions to mitigate or reduce physician resistance to achieve nationwide diffusion targets and pursue initiatives to digitize all patient records.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Diffusion and an Examination of Physician Resistance

Since the enactment of the United States Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009, there has been substantial progress in the diffusion of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems in medical clinics throughout the United States. Many physicians, however, continue to resist adopting EHR technology despite several accepted, long-term benefits and available government sponsored financial incentives. The objective of this article is to provide insight into the question as to why physicians are resistant to adopting EHR technology. This article details several of the benefits of EHR systems and uses a systematic review of literature to critically analyze and detail the most common perceived physician barriers to the adoption of EHRs. With the awareness of the major physician barriers to the adoption of EHR technology, stakeholders and policy makers can address barriers and pursue actions to mitigate or reduce physician resistance to achieve nationwide diffusion targets and pursue initiatives to digitize all patient records.

HIPAA 101 for the Private Practitioner

This chapter introduces basic requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), including privacy regulations applicable to HIPAA-covered entities and security regulations applicable to both HIPAA-covered entities and business associates. The privacy regulations covered in this chapter include the definition of psychotherapy notes under HIPAA regulations, the “minimum necessary” requirement, HIPAA authorizations, personal representatives, and the need for an accounting of certain disclosures of client’s protected health information. Also explored is the interaction and state law and HIPAA regulations, especially in relation to the practitioner’s Notice of Privacy Practices. The security regulation’s administrative, physical, and technical safeguards are discussed, including an introduction to the HIPAA required security risk assessment. Also explained is the breach notification law that was enacted through the 2009 Health Information Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

Organizational Leadership and Health Care Reform

Policies, health, and government regulations affect various Health Care organizations and their members. One such policy, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, attempts to improve the performance of health care systems through the use of technology, such as Electronic Health Records (Bluementhal, 2010). The most critical task of leadership is to establish a mindset at the top of the organization and function to infuse a culture of excellence throughout the organization (Bentkover, 2012). Health organizations can only progress if their members share a set of values and are single-mindedly committed to achieving openly defined objectives (Bentkover, 2012). This chapter investigates organizational leadership in relation to health care reforms to include trends in health care leadership, Stratified Systems Theory (SST), Systems Thinking, and regulators perspectives. The chapter will consist of the following sections: background; issues controversies, and problems; solutions and recommendation; future research directions; and conclusion.

Observations Illustrating the Use of Health Informatics to Link Public Health Immunization Registries and Pharmacies to Increase Adult Immunization Rates and Improve Population Health Outcomes

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act encourages health information exchange between clinical care and public health through Meaningful Use measures. Meaningful Use specifically identifies objectives to support a number of public health programs including immunizations, cancer registries, syndromic surveillance, and disease case reports. The objective is to improve public and population health. Stage 2 of Meaningful Use focused on the sending of information to public health. The Stage 3 information exchange supports the flow of information from public health back to the provider.The HITECH Act Stage 2 initiative provided incentive and motivation for the healthcare providers to encourage their Electronic Medical Record (EMR) vendors to implement data exchanges with public health, resulting in timelier awareness of population health risk. However, the real empowerment in the HITECH Act is not in the reporting of information to public health but in the ability for a provider to receive relevant information back, the Stage 3 model. There is no better example of the Stage 3 empowerment than an immunization record data exchange.The ability for public health to retain current immunization records of individuals from a variety of providers supports their program goals to increase immunization rates and mitigate the risk of vaccine-preventable disease (VPD). The ability for providers to receive at the point of service more complete immunization histories integrated with decision support supports their delivery of care and reduces the risk of their patients to VPD. Indirectly payers benefit through healthcare cost savings and when the focus is expanded from a health model to a business model, there are significant return on investment (ROI) opportunities that exponentially increase the value of a bi-directional immunization data exchange. This paper will provide descriptions of case examples to demonstrate the value added benefit of electronic data exchanges when immunization providers, specifically pharmacists, and public health work together.

Organizational Leadership and Health Care Reform

Policies, health, and government regulations affect various Health Care organizations and their members. One such policy, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, attempts to improve the performance of health care systems through the use of technology, such as Electronic Health Records (Bluementhal, 2010). The most critical task of leadership is to establish a mindset at the top of the organization and function to infuse a culture of excellence throughout the organization (Bentkover, 2012). Health organizations can only progress if their members share a set of values and are single-mindedly committed to achieving openly defined objectives (Bentkover, 2012). This chapter investigates organizational leadership in relation to health care reforms to include trends in health care leadership, Stratified Systems Theory (SST), Systems Thinking, and regulators perspectives. The chapter will consist of the following sections: background; issues controversies, and problems; solutions and recommendation; future research directions; and conclusion.