Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

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Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

The HITECH Act acts as a significant element of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, allows business members to comply with the HIPAA security regulations. One goal of the HITECH Act involves the improvement of patient healthcare. Patient care assumes a vital role in gauging the effectiveness of healthcare delivery. One advantage of the aim is based on the attention it draws towards the provision of care towards patients (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Accordingly, care providers are gauged in terms of the efforts that they implement in ensuring the safety and protection of patients. Furthermore, healthcare organizations focus on securing their patients from internal and external threats. For the former, this may take place in respect to the treatment and care of the patients. External concerns on the other hand may comprise issues related to the environment that may pose limitations on the provision of healthcare within the respective organizations.

 In relation to HIPAA, the respective aim focuses on the improvement of patient care by making the services patient-centric. Based on the HIPAA Act, the augmentation of patient care may involve the development of a safe, interoperable national health data network (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). An imperative premise regarding this specific goal is in respect to the information and the patient. Simply, the data must follow the person receiving the care as well as artificial obstacles. These may comprise bureaucratic, technical, or business-based barriers. However, the respective obstacles should not be a limitation towards the faultless exchange of data or information. Thus, secure data exchange should take place across business and institutional boundaries in order to ensure that proper information is accessible for purposes of amplifying efficiency, coordination, and the quality of care provided by healthcare institutions.

References

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning, LLC