The HIPAA privacy rule, the Title X confidentiality regulations, and the confidentiality protections that flow from state minor consent laws are particularly noteworthy. Examples in state law include general medical confidentiality laws, those implementing the HIPAA privacy rule, and minor consent laws, along with many others. At the state level, a wide array of statutory and regulatory provisions protects the confidentiality of medical information. Other important federal protections are contained in the statutes and regulations governing the Title X Family Planning Program, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, the Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) Program, and Medicaid. The federal HIPAA privacy rule, which defines patient-specific health information as “protected health information” (PHI), contains detailed regulations that require health care providers and health plans to guard against privacy breaches. Federal and state laws are replete with requirements to protect the confidentiality of patients’ health information. The confidentiality obligation of health care professionals has found expression in an extensive array of state and federal laws, many of which have implications for third-party billing and health insurance claims processes.
Legal requirements to protect confidentiality. More recently, the confidentiality obligation has been enshrined in the codes of ethics and policy pronouncements of the medical profession, including those of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, and numerous other organizations. Confidentiality ObligationĮthical obligation. The obligation of health care professionals to protect the privacy of their patients has a long history dating back to the Hippocratic Oath. Examples of such solutions are found in statutes and regulations of a growing number of states. However, we need policy-level solutions that are consistent with long-standing confidentiality requirements.
Some of these approaches build on protections that already exist in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule but have not been fully implemented. To address this, states are beginning to adopt a variety of statutory and regulatory approaches to protect patients’ privacy, even as a wide array of communications continue to occur among health care providers, insurers, policyholders, and patients in billing and health insurance claims processes. Finding effective policy solutions has become more pressing as an increasing number of people have acquired health insurance and because it has become clear that solutions implemented at the health care provider level cannot effectively address this challenge. Because our health insurance landscape currently requires disclosure of a great deal of confidential health information for processing of claims and other administrative purposes, meeting this ethical obligation presents a major challenge, requiring policy solutions that are emerging but not yet fully defined. Protecting patients’ privacy and the confidentiality of their health information is a fundamental ethical requirement for health care professionals.
0 kommentar(er)
