Hippa And How Philosophers Would Have Viewed It
We've all received "Privacy Practices" notices from our physicians but many people do not understand how the Health Information Privacy Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and other laws that affect how our personal information is handled have evolved during the last few years. In the past, our medical information was not as protected as it is today. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) set out to empower patients. HHS wanted to give patients access to their medical records and give the patient more control over how their personal information is used and disclosed.
Historically, medical ethics have respected patients' need for confidentiality while authorities have sought the disclosure of certain contagious illnesses to preserve public health. The last several decades have seen major changes in the practice of medicine, such as computerization. The latest major development in this area was in 1996, when HIPAA called for the creation of a controversial national medical database, in which each patient would have a unique medical identifier like a Social Security number. To ease concerns about security and privacy, the legislation stipulated that HHS protect this health information. Out of this change come the new HIPAA rules for medical privacy.
Congress gave HHS the responsibility of setting up the guidelines that would govern information in the medical field. These guidelines affect health plans, providers who verify eligibility and enroll patients electronically, pharmacies, doctors, and other health care providers. While HIPAA was drafted in 1996, the medical field was not forced to comply with the federal standards until April 14, 2003. HIPAA was passed to help protect and safeguard the security and confidentiality of a person's health information. One part of HIPAA, the Privacy Rule, is designed to keep your medical information private and prevent unnecessary disclosures of your protected health information (PHI). This does not...
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