HIPAA vs. HITECH: What's the Difference?

Nursing Code of

Ethics

Supportive 

components 

The Health Information

Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was initiated in 2009 as a component of American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act (Woten et al., 2016). The aim of HITECH was to enhance the safety of patients and efficiency and minimizing healthcare associated errors (Woten et al. 2016). In addition, Hitech is popular for

its influence to better securing patient personal health information when using health information technology systems, for example, electronic health records (Woten et al. 2016).

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was sanctioned and advocated by the United States Congress in 1996 (U.S. Department of

Health & Human Services,

2015). HIPAA outlines a criterion for health information by guaranteeing the security and privacy of the personal health information of a patient. Besides, The U.S Congress also approved HIPAA to aid in reducing the number of healthcare fraud and abuse witnessed in the country (the U.S.

Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). Standards for HIPAA were enacted to ensure electronic health information was secured to uphold the safety of patients (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015).

The Nursing Code of

Ethics was enacted and

created by the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to assist in formulating a foundation for nursing

professionals for delivering patient care in a professional

an ethical way

(ANA, 2018). To achieve this, the

ANA and ICN

created nine provisions to the Code of Ethics which equips

nurses with the

standardization of care

with precise guidelines for practice (ANA, 2018). The Nursing

Code of Ethics can be

considered analogously to HIPAA and other

federal or state privacy

and confidentially regulations, since by adhering to a nurse’s ethical code they are also adhering with the Privacy and Security laws they are already obliged to follow from HIPAA and HITECH (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018).

Maintain 

EHR security 

The HITECH Act has influenced HIPAA, especially on its Privacy and Security Rules in numerous ways (the U.S.

Department of Health &

Human Services, 2016).

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services managed this

by imposing annual guidelines on how healthcare institutions can safeguard individual health information (U.S.

Department of Health &

Human Services, 2016). Moreover, there are

notification protocols and steps to follow if security system breach occurs at healthcare facilities, implying that HITECH has fortified and improved

the security of personal information of HIPAA

(U.S. Department of

Health & Human Services,

2016). Furthermore, this is because, through HITECH, HIPAA obligations are now also enacted by the business associated with healthcare organizations (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2016).

The HIPAA Security Rule was established and implemented by the government to demand specific protections to electronic health information and personal health information (Office for Civil Rights, 2017). The Security Rule demands healthcare professionals and institutions to employ tools such as passwords and PIN numbers to reduce access to

patient information by

unauthorized or inappropriate personnel (Office for Civil Rights,

2017). Besides, healthcare institutions must encrypt information stored on servers or computers to

deter personal health

information from being read

or understood without

access to the “key” required to decrypt specific information

(Office for Civil Rights, 2017). Lastly, a healthcare organization must avail auditing information which regulates who is searching for a specific patient

health information, what they are doing with the information acquired, and if/when any alterations were done to specific health information (Office for Civil Rights, 2017). Hence, this may enable patients to feel more at comfortable, as they know they have a right to expect protection and privacy of their personal health information by the U.S laws (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018).

The ANA’s Code of

Ethics for Nurses has subsections that assist in upholding security for electronic health records (ANA, 2018).

Within the Code of

Ethics there is an

Interpretive Statement

which requires that

nursing professionals secure patient’s rights to privacy and confidentiality (ANA, 2018). The Code of Ethics also reminds nurses that the

nursing professional has taken an oath to advocate and safeguarding patients by causing no harm, which is achieved in part by not violating a patient's privacy in electronic health records.

Affects a 

specific area 

of nursing 

practice 

The nine provisions of

the Nursing Code of

Ethics influence nursing practice since they enable the nurse to have sureness in maintaining personal health information private and utilize their professional verdict on sharing this information with anyone needed while accomplishing patient advocacy and safety

(Spring, 2015). Therefore, this implies that a nurse respects a patient's privacy rights to healthcare decisions and secures healthcare

information by not discussing patient care with other nurses during lunch hours or when out to dinner with other healthcare professionals. The nine

provisions ensure the

nursing profession is

not infringing the Code

of Ethics while remaining professional through teamwork and collaboration, practicing, with compassion and respect, and uphold their devotion to providing safe, quality care while advocating for each and every patient (Spring, 2015).