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HIPAA and the Transformation of Organizational Healthcare Frameworks

October 15, 2022

Is HIPAA beneficial to the public, or has it transformed the organizational framework of healthcare?

Yes. HIPAA is beneficial to the public, to us, because it provides us with greater control over our health information (Alder, 2017). The control comes as boundaries or restriction on their use and its release. Along with the restrictions, HIPAA protects our health care providers, as well. One example is through proper clinical documentation. We are familiar with the statement - If it's not documented; it did not happen.

The HIPAAcratic Oath: do no harm to patient data (Tang, 2000) emphasizes that healthcare leaders must become actively involved in protecting the confidentiality of health information, while giving medical and healthcare providers optimal access to data to make informed decisions on patient care and management.

While this is a clever way of using the Hippocratic oath of "do no harm" in health information, we cannot ignore the fact that patient data is a very important element of the healthcare.

Also, there is the matter of "greater good" that deals with ethics. We must know what is the "guiding good" in medical practice. There are moral dilemmas that need to be confronted, especially if duties and obligations are to be considered and that there are consequences for every decision made - good or bad. According (Mandal et al., 2016) four fundamental principles, must be taken into consideration - autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

During the pandemic, one question was posed and answered:

Q: Does the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule allow a covered entity to share the name or other identifying information of an individual who has been infected with, or exposed to, the virus SARS-CoV-2, or the disease caused by the virus, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), with law enforcement, paramedics, other first responders, and public health authorities without an individual’s authorization?

A: Yes.

According to the Office of Civil Rights, the "greater good" and "best interest" will override patient rights. However, the patient's privacy will always be respected and that only authorized individuals can access and use the data. Audits on the use of the data can be done after the crisis is under control to ensure that "no harm" was done to the patient.

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