The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was established to safeguard the confidentiality and enhance the security of the healthcare information (Atchinson & Fox, 2000) The HIPAA plays an imperative role of assuring clients that the protected health information (PHI) cannot be disclosed without their consent. As a result, clients are more willing to share their health-related information, which helps in improving their health. The HIPAA Privacy Rule regulates the disclosure of the protected health information that is held by health insurers, employers, healthcare providers and other related covered entities (Armstrong & Eagle, 2005). The protected health information may be disclosed from time to time only when there is a compelling reason. However, the covered entities can only disclose information that is relevant to what they are planning to do. Sometimes a written consent from the client might not be required. That is especially when there is a healthcare emergency or a court order. HIPAA is a Federal law that provides standards for safeguarding the security and the privacy of the clients’ information. therefore, despite the fact other states might have their own set of laws, HIPAA supersedes them when conflicts arise (Wolf & Bennett, 2006).
As a chemical dependency counselor, the main goal is to enhance the security and privacy of the clients’ information. The goal is achieved by ensuring that client’s information is accessed only by authorized persons. As mentioned above, the protected health information is only disclosed if there is a court order or if required by healthcare providers and employers. Therefore, the chemical dependency counselor adheres to the standards as established by the HIPAA to ensure that the client information is protected against unauthorized persons.
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Informed consent is the permission obtained from the client to use or disclose their protected health information for particular purposes. As a chemical dependency counselor, one may want to share the information with other experts to have more insight on the problem. That is only done after obtaining the permission from the client. As mentioned before, only limited and relevant information should be disclosed even after obtaining the consent.
References
Atchinson, K. & Fox, M. (2000). "The Politics Of The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act.” Health Affairs. 16 (3): 146–150. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.16.3.146
Armstrong, D. & Eagle, K. (2005). "Potential impact of the HIPAA privacy rule on data collection in a registry of patients with acute coronary syndrome". Arch Intern Med. 165 (10): 1125–9. doi:10.1001/archinte.165.10.1125
Wolf, M. & Bennett, C. (2006). "Local perspective of the impact of the HIPAA privacy rule on research". Cancer. 106 (2): 474–9. doi:10.1002/cncr.21599
