NURS FPX 4040 Assessment 2: Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices

Student Name

Capella University

NURS-FPX 4040 Managing Health Information and Technology

Prof. Name:

Date

Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices

Federal legislation known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 and gives people rights and protections in relation to their health information (CDC, 2018). Also, it establishes guidelines for how businesses that deal with health information should use and disclose protected health information (PHI). Any information on a person’s past, present, or future physical or mental health that is generated or obtained by a healthcare provider, health plan, public health authority, employer, or other entity in charge of providing healthcare services is considered protected health information (HIPAA, 2018). Names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, residences, account numbers, clinical details, and diagnoses are some of the data that fall under this category.

Insightful Summary of Laws Related to PHI

The HIPAA Security Rule provides national requirements to safeguard electronic PHI (ePHI) (Gatehouse, 2020). The Rule mandates that covered entities put in place necessary protections to prevent unauthorized access, misuse, or disclosure of ePHI. When unprotected PHI is compromised, covered entities are required under the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule to inform the affected persons (Heath et al., 2021). Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and, in some circumstances, the media must be notified by covered entities according to the Rule. The HIPAA Enforcement Rule outlines the steps HHS must follow in order to look into and punish organizations that break the HIPAA Rules. This involves enforcing sanctions for non-compliance, such as civil monetary fines, remedial action plans, and potential legal action (Moore & Frye, 2019).

Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices

The rules described above give the multidisciplinary team a thorough basis for safeguarding the privacy of sensitive electronic health information. These regulations require that covered companies put in place reasonable and necessary protections to keep ePHI from being accessed, used, or disclosed without authorization. The statutes also provide processes for HHS to take legal action against companies that violate the HIPAA Rules and give people rights over their PHI.

Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial to protecting sensitive electronic health information (ePHI) because it enables many stakeholders to cooperate to ensure patient data security and compliance with data privacy and security laws. Organizations may better understand the dangers involved in managing ePHI and develop measures to secure it by applying the knowledge of several disciplines (Beckmann et al., 2021).

For instance, a privacy officer, IT staff, legal counsel, and a health information management specialist, can be on an interdisciplinary team of specialists. Capella 4040 Assessment 2. This group may assist a healthcare company in creating policies and processes to safeguard ePHI, such as putting in place the proper access controls and encryption to guarantee that only authorized people have access to the data. The group may assist the company in developing a reaction strategy in the event of a data breach (Beckmann et al., 2021).

Evidence-Based Approaches to Mitigate Risk to Patients and Healthcare Staff

Here are some strategies for minimizing risks for patients and medical personnel while utilizing social media that contains sensitive electronic health information (Health, 2022).

• Create a social media policy with rules for interacting with patients on social media and limitations on the sharing of private information.
• Use secure communications, and such services should be HIPAA compliant and encrypted to assure data safety.
• Educate employees on the dangers of social media use and the necessity of safeguarding private electronic health records.
• Check social media accounts for improper information and make sure that staff members are complying with the rules and regulations.
• Just those people who require access to do their jobs should have access to sensitive electronic health information.
• Use authentication procedures to confirm the identity of anybody accessing sensitive data.
• Construct auditing and monitoring mechanisms to identify any illegal access or attempted access to sensitive information.
• Keep abreast with the most recent best practices for safeguarding private electronic health information.