Impact of HIPAA Rules on Healthcare Organizations

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Moore &
Frye, 2019). It is a federal privacy rule that protects the security and privacy of some data of
individuals, particularly identifiable data, that is obtained in healthcare settings. HIPAA
protects data of patients that is obtained through healthcare operations, treatment, and
payment. This paper examines some of the effects that HIPAA has had on nurses and
healthcare organizations in general.

Impact of HIPAA on System Implementation

Violation of HIPAA rules can result in a lot of monetary loss by healthcare
organizations (Jackson, 2015). Thus, healthcare organizations have to make a lot of
investments to make sure that patient data does not leak. To effectively implement HIPAA
rules, healthcare organizations need to change their manner of documentation of patient data,
carry out regular screening of persons who handle patient data, and conduct thorough
oversight of the process.

Impact of HIPAA on Clinical Care, Workflow, and Patient/Provider Interactions

In order to adhere to the rules of HIPAA, healthcare professionals have to handle
more paperwork than they would otherwise do. Thus, less time is spent on clinical care.
Additionally, there is also less time for interactions between healthcare providers and
patients. With regards to workflow, the need for regular screening of persons handling patient
data and oversight of the data-handling process slows down the flow of work (Chen &
Benusa, 2017).

Organizational Policies and Procedures

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In order to effectively implement HIPAA rules, there are a number of organizational
policies and procedures that need to be implemented. One of them is to appoint a data privacy
or security officer. The person holding this position will be tasked with ensuring that there are
no patient data leaks and that HIPAA rules are strictly upheld (Chen & Benusa, 2017). With
regards to procedures, there will be regular assessment of the healthcare organization’s
systems to make sure that they are not vulnerable to data breaches.

Conclusion

HIPAA rules are meant to make sure that there is high level of protection and safety
of patient’s data. Implementation of HIPAA rules has had mixed effects on various aspects of
healthcare operations. On the one hand, the implementation has led to greater protection of
patients’ data. On the other hand, it has led to slower flow of work and healthcare
organizations incurring extra costs for the implementation of the rules.

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References

Chen, J. Q., & Benusa, A. (2017). HIPAA security compliance challenges: The case for small
healthcare providers. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 10(2), 135-
146.

Jackson, J. (2015). The Costs of Medical Privacy Breach. MD advisor: a journal for New
Jersey medical community, 8(3), 4-12.

Moore, W., & Frye, S. (2019). Review of HIPAA, part 1: history, protected health
information, and privacy and security rules. Journal of nuclear medicine
technology, 47(4), 269-272.