You will complete 2 policy studies in this course: Policy Study 1: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Research each policy and respond to the discussion questions below. 1. How has the health policy transformed health care delivery? 2. What are the positive and negative effects of the health care policy? 3. What recommendations do you have to enhance the policy in its current state? Each Policy Study must be at least 1,000 words, cite at least 2 peer-reviewed journal articles in addition to the course textbook, and include biblical integration. Each Policy Study must be double-spaced, follow current APA format, and include a title page and a reference page. The word count does not include the title page and the reference page. assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
Introduction
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act was enacted in 1996 by Congress and required the establishment of national standards protecting sensitive patient health information. The HIPAA protects sensitive patient information from being disclosed to third parties without the consent and knowledge of patients (Kayaalp, 2020). The US Department for Health And Human Services is therefore responsible for implementing the specific requirements of the HIPAA, which includes protecting specific patient health information covered by the privacy rule. The HIPAA privacy rule includes specific standards that address the disclosure and use of individual health information by specific entities that are authorized in the rules, which are known as covered entities (Kayaalp, 2020). The privacy rule also provides standards and the rights of individuals related to understanding and control of how their health information is utilized. The main goal of the privacy rule and the HIPAA is to protect individual health information while also allowing the effective flow of information in a way that will protect public health and well-being and promote high-quality health care. The covered entities in the HIPAA that can access protected health information include healthcare providers and health plans.
How HIPAA Has Transformed Health Care Delivery
The HIPAA has transformed healthcare in many ways over the more than two decades that it has been under implementation, including enhancing the transition of healthcare record systems in healthcare facilities countrywide from paper records to electronic copies of health information (Kumar et al., 2020). After the adoption of HIPAA, numerous healthcare facilities in the US got a framework to move from the traditional paper records to the electronic health record systems that are common in contemporary times. HIPAA provides guidelines that healthcare facilities can utilize to digitize electronic health record systems while avoiding risks such as unauthorized access to protected health information. HIPAA has also transformed healthcare by helping to streamline administrative health functions, ensuring that protected health information is shared securely, and improving efficiency in the healthcare industry by providing specific instructions and guidelines on how protected health information should be handled (Moore & Frye, 2019). HIPAA has therefore made it easy for healthcare providers to work effectively with insurers in enhancing access to healthcare services. The HIPAA has also transformed healthcare delivery by providing specific standards for recording electronic transactions and health data that ensure that all the stakeholders in the healthcare industry are working from the same script. HIPAA-covered entities are therefore given nationally-recognized identifiers in the form of codes that help to transfer electronic health information easily between health plans, health care providers, and other entities and therefore promote health care delivery to populations. Finally, HIPAA has also transformed healthcare delivery by encouraging the introduction of technological resources in healthcare delivery and promoting innovation in delivering healthcare services, for example, telemedicine in contemporary times. The availability of HIPAA makes it possible for healthcare providers to have a framework that they can refer to in the application of new technology, such as telemedicine, and to know the strategies they need to adopt to protect private health information and to avoid endangering sensitive data related to patients (Cohen & Mello, 2019).