The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) & Data Breaches

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) & Data Breaches

Electronic data breaches have become one of the major significant problems in the modern world. Although the problem is across all industries, it can prove particularly devastating to the healthcare industry (Liu, Musen, & Chou, 2015). In order to curb this major problem, nearly all states have come up with different regulatory laws to combat data breaches. The law may vary from one state to another, but even nurses are reminded of the definition of personal information that they must adhere to with regards to patient information (Edemekong, & Haydel, 2019). The set laws are expected to guide the patients on what to do and the health care facilities on their roles. Organizations that fail to comply with the data breaches rules are likely to face a fine, which amounts to huge losses due to non-compliance. As a general requirement, nurses are likely to be charged for the breach of patient confidentiality. Thus, maintaining HIPAA compliance is integral for any healthcare provider, and nurses are considered to be key in protecting patients’ healthcare security.

The Problem and its Implication

Healthcare facilities are required to abide by the security and breach notification rules, and the agent of ensuring these rules are implemented and followed are the nurses. The failure to comply with HIPAA rules is likely to result in penalties for the healthcare facilities, but for the nurses, the consequences who violate the law, the consequences may be more profound. The proposed law on HIPAA and data breach was passed to curb increasing complaints of data breaches, which are rampant in modern society (Edemekong, & Haydel, 2019). The move is to protect the confidential information of patients from individuals likely to use such information for personal gain. Conspiracy to get personal information of patients through the aid of nurses put the lives of patients in great danger from the enemies such as the individuals who may want to distort money from the people.

What happens if the nurse violates the HIPAA law?

Accidental HIPAA violation may take place as the case when the nurse has tried all the best to follow the HIPAA Rules. However, if the violation is not accidental, then the nurse found guilty of the violations are likely to face the law. In most cases, minor violations may not have negative consequences on the patient and can be handled internally. The most common intervention for the violation of the law is proper training of the nurses to ensure the requirement of HIPAA is understood by all nurses (Colorafi, & Bailey, 2016). If a nurse has accidentally violated HIPAA, the incident should be reported to the right authority for appropriate action to be taken, and failure to report the incident may land a nurse into a major problem. Serious violation of HIPAA either intentionally or committed without malicious intent, is likely to result in a serious disciplinary action taken on the nurse. The consequence may include termination of the contract by the board of nursing. If a nurse is charged with malicious intent, such a nurse not only losses the job but may fail to find an alternative job because the nursing profession rules prohibit the recruitment of individuals who violate the HIPAA Rules (Colorafi, & Bailey, 2016). Patients whose rights are violated can launch a complaint against the nurse through the office of Civil Rights and refer the case to the Department for Justice to pursue criminal offense against the nurse.  Although Criminal prosecutions are rare, accessing the PHI of patients, the nurse does not attend to for financial gain may earn a nurse ten years in jail.

Proposed Solution

All the nurses are required to read HIPAA and data breach guidelines and understand what the provisions state on patients’ confidentiality. It is a mandatory requirement for the nurses to read the guidelines and understand the kind of information which they have access to and the information which they cannot access; otherwise, the nurse may face a legal suit as was the case in of John Doe in 2010. In 2010, John Doe was admitted for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases at one of the private hospitals in New York. The nurse on duty recognized Doe as a boyfriend to one of her relatives (sister-in-law). He nurse was not assigned to Doe but maliciously checked Doe’s chart and learned of the diagnosis. The nurse later forwarded the information to her sister-in-law. The manner in which the information reached her sister-in-law raises more questions than answers. The sister-in-law thought the nurse was making fun of the boyfriend and forwarded the text to Doe, who moved to the administrator to report the nurse. The nurse was dismissed, and further actions were taken against her for maliciously obtaining patient’s information without their knowledge for malicious activities.

In order to ensure all the nurses understand the laws on HIPAA and data breach, the nursing board encourages health care facilities to conduct educational programs to teach nurses on the need to respect and safeguard patients’ private information. Sick people are at the mercy of the hospitals to save their lives and protect their identity. Proper training on the nurses can help win the war on piracy within the health sector.

Supporters of the Proposed Solutions

The mover of the proposed solution of a data breach is the government. As witnessed in the recent past, the government recognized data privacy breaches as a major issue that required immediate intervention. Just as the citizens have a right to protection from any form of piracy, nurses and other health professionals are required to maintain confidentiality on private and confidential information which they get from patients (Edemekong, & Haydel, 2019). However, the success of the proposed solution depends on the health care facilities to ensure the nurses comply and abide by the rules. Otherwise, those found guilty of the breach of the law on privacy and confidential law may be forced to face the full wrath of the law. Nurses must understand how to handle protected health information (PHI) because careless handling of such information may lead to several litigations, which can lead to the government closing the facility for putting the citizens at risk in this period when terror attackers target such information for financial gains.

How to Implement the Proposed solution

I will send by the proposed solution to the Senate through my senator for the legislature to deliberate on the need for all states to compel health facilities to conduct mandatory training on all nurses to enable them to understand HIPAA and data breaches laws. If all states can educate the nurses on these laws and the consequences of sharing such information to the third party, then the war on crime related to unlawful sharing of confidential information of the patient can easily be won.  The nurses can also understand the kind of information to put on social media and the kind of information about the patients which they cannot share.

References

Colorafi, K., & Bailey, B. (2016). It’s time for innovation in the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA). JMIR medical informatics, 4(4), e34.

Edemekong, P. F., & Haydel, M. J. (2019). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Liu, V., Musen, M. A., & Chou, T. (2015). Data breaches of protected health information in the United States. Jama, 313(14), 1471-1473.