Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Introduction to HIPAA

The HIPAA is the acronym for the Act concerning the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability. This act provides and grants the rules and regulations for creation of standards on the national levels regarding the medical records and information. This act provides the patients with increased rights over their medical information and records, thus ensuring the provision of more security and protection of the health records (Department of Health and Human Services, 2013).

Protected Health Information

Along with the legal constraints of the HIPAA, the information of health and disease about the patient is similar to a private possession of the patient. Besides the legalities and the rules and regulations, the patients are at full dependence at the hospital administration. Protected health information refers to any division or subset of the health information that concerns a patient and is deep enough to have the reader get an identification of the patient. The information can be in any form; it can either be in oral form or communication, written document or any form of medical and personal history of the patient. In short, the information about a patient that clearly identifies him or her and reveals confidential and personal information about the personal health is referred to as Protected Health Information (irb.ucsd.edu).

Disclosure of Protected Health Information

The protected information of the patient in the custody and records of the hospital administration are subjected to the protection and privacy rights of the patients. However, the information concerning the personal issues and health of the patients is not wholly protected and strictly prohibited for sharing. There are certain circumstances that require the disclosure of the Protected Health Information of the patients.

Such situations comprise of instances that relate to and are in ...