Question 1
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a federal regulation that was enacted to protect patients’ privacy. The act prohibits health care providers from sharing certain confidential information classified the protected health information (PHI) whether electronically, orally or documented and gives patients the right to access copies of the healthcare related documents.
The HIPAA applies to the family being discussed including their demographic information where the husband is described as codependent, the mother an alcoholic in addition to the personal attributes of the children. HIPAA mandates health care providers such as Cynthia and Robert to protect patients’ important information as the one shared by the social workers.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In this case the HIPAA is protecting the mother of the family under discussion. Since addiction is one of the issues handled by Inner City Mental Health Authority (ICMHA) social agency, the mother who is an alcoholic represents the patient whose rights are to be protected. Besides, Cohen & Mello (2018) indicates that HIPAA applies to health care organizations and regulators. Since mental health forms part of healthcare needs, the ICMHA qualifies to be a covered entity and thus the HIPAA rights apply here.
Question 2
Employers play a significant role in training employees on privacy regulation since non-compliance in the work place might result in penalties that implicate the employer. Besides, compliance to HIPAA includes the protection of patient information; employers are obliged to protect employee information.
Question 3
The directors should substantiate the complaint filed against the social workers and ascertain whether the HIPAA rule was deliberately violated and the intentions for violation. In this case, although there was breach of the patient’s privacy, Cynthia shared the information in quest of professional assistance. The director should therefore solve the matter internally by advising Cynthia and Robert respect patient’s confidentiality and when need arises, they should be cautious of their surroundings.
References
Cohen, I. G., & Mello, M. M. (2018). HIPAA and protecting health information in the 21st Century. Jama , 320 (3), 231-232.
