The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a piece of legislation that was introduced in healthcare to eliminate cases of wastage, healthcare fraud, and ensure that the healthcare employees protect patients’ health information. The principal aim of the implement act is to improve the privacy of healthcare patients. A facility can fail to protect patient’s data; in this case, the government will come in, and the organization will be fined vast sums of money, and it will risk damaging its image. The Act also sets conditions and limits concerning the disclosure and use of patients’ information without their consent. The Act provides patients with rights of access to their health information and the right to ask for a copy of their medical records. Therefore, when a healthcare facility or employee fails to comply with the aspects of the HIPAA Act, it will be considered as to have violated the rule.
Why HIPAA was implemented
The HIPAA was implemented when the healthcare system shifted their focus to computerizing of medical records. The change demanded that the industry should have new standards that would help in the management of collected data. The measures contained the rules concerning the sharing of medical information and protection of patient’s rights regarding medical privacy. The Accountability potion is part II of the Act, and it is designed to ensure patients' information are kept confidential (McGowan, 2012) . The HIPAA was implemented because there was a need for ensuring that individuals maintained their health care coverage after they leave their jobs.
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The primary aim of implementing the HIPAA was to provide uniform standards through which health information can be transferred among health plans, clearinghouses, and healthcare providers while making sure that patient confidentiality and privacy. Many healthcare facilities including health plans applied Electronic Data Interchange of data and documents. Transactions using electronics became prevalent. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, healthcare institutions to process healthcare data were using 400 different formats. The lack of standardization made it difficult for the facilities to increase efficiencies, develop software solutions, and reduce their costs. Therefore, HIPAA was implemented to define uniform standards associated with collection and management of health information and ensuring patient confidentiality and privacy.
The Office for Civil rights developed this rule to protect the privacy of patients. The office believed that the rule would protect patients' health information, frequently used to in analyzing their safety. The rule, therefore, provides federal protection for confidentiality and privacy of personal information, generally held by health institutions. The privacy rule permits disclosure of information if only the information is important for patient care and other medical purposes.
HIPAA violations
The most common HIPAA violations include employees disclosing information, texting patient information, illegally accessing patient files, and accessing patient information without consent. An employee is considered to have disclosed patient information when he or she gossips about a patient to coworkers or friends. In addition, when an employee accesses a file belonging to a patient without a written consent, it will be considered as a HIPAA violation. The employees may text patient information such as test results and vital signs as it is an easy way of relaying information. Patient information should not be texted to them because cybercriminals can obtain the information. A health care professional texting a patient about his or her status will be considered to have violated the HIPAA (Cannon & Caldwell, 2016) .
The employees of a facility may mishandle patient records. For example, a nurse may leave a patient record or chart in the examination room, and another patient may see it. The negligence by the employee is a violation of HIPAA because the patient records need to be safe from public view. Some employees of a healthcare facility may post patient photos and data on social media. The act may seem harmless if the patient's name is not mentioned, but someone may recognize the patient, leading to a breach of a patient's confidentiality. Finally, patient information can be disclosed to the public through stolen devices such as laptops, smartphones, and desktops (Cannon & Caldwell, 2016) .
Penalties for HIPAA violations
The penalties associated with HIPAA violations are severe because it is treated as a criminal offense. State judges and attorneys can penalize an organization up to a maximum of $25,000 per violation every year. The Office of Civil Rights can penalize an organization up to $1.5 million to be paid each year. It is not only the health care providers, business associates, and health plans that are fines, individuals who have violated HIPAA are also fined. The individuals can be jailed for the violations, and some jail terms can be ten years. Individuals violating the HIPAA unknowingly or with a reasonable cause will have a potential jail term of up to 1 year. An individual committing the offense under pretense will have a jail term of up to five years. Finally, an individual violating the HIPAA for personal gain will receive a jail term of up to ten years (Winger, 2013) .
Implementation plan for organizations
The healthcare organization should first understand what HIPAA entails as well as its importance. It can achieve this by speaking with experts in the area and searching the internet about the standards. Secondly, the organization should make the management aware of HIPAA to make sure that the organization can decide to follow the standards and implement them. Next, the organization should ensure that the employees are organized in such a manner that they can identify areas that are prone to HIPAA convictions. After that, the organization should develop a schedule providing dates the company started being compliant and implemented the new procedures.
The organization also needs to make sure that its business associates are HIPAA compliant because it can be fined as a result of the associate violating the HIPAA. Next, the organization needs to identify and implement systems that will ensure that patients' information is maintained and shared in a proper format. Security measures such as encryption should also be implemented by the organization to meet the security standards. Next, the organization should monitor systems, transaction, data, and security changes to continue being HIPAA compliant. Finally, the organization needs to endure that its employees document the health data. HIPAA demands that organizations document the health data that they maintain and the methods used to maintain, protect and store the data (Issel & Wells, 2017) .
Conclusion
The HIPAA rule was introduced into the healthcare facilities to ensure the protection of patients' privacy and confidentiality. Healthcare facilities and their employees are expected to protect the privacy of their patients and failure to do so will lead to heavy fines. The rule sets conditions and limits about information disclosure and use of patients’ information without their consent. The most common violations include employees disclosing information, texting patient information, illegally accessing patient files, and accessing patient information without permission. Improved privacy in the healthcare system will make patients provide all information concerning their health, thus improving general public health.
References
Cannon, A. A., & Caldwell, H. (2016). HIPAA violations among nursing students: Teachable moment or terminal mistake-A case study. . Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 6(12) , 41.
Issel, L. M., & Wells, R. (2017). Health program planning and evaluation. Boston: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
McGowan, C. (2012). Patients’ confidentiality . Critical care nurse, 32(5) , 61-64.
Winger, M. (2013). HIPAA Increases Financial Penalties For Repeat Violations To Address Increasing Healthcare Data Breaches. New York: Zephyr Networks.
