Health Information Privacy Rule Ensuring Process For...

Health Information Privacy Rule: Ensuring Process for Data Loss A Case Review Information technology (IT) is at the forefront of everything we do today. In the same way, Information Technology has become an integral part of health care delivery (Shi Singh, 2012). How come? The idea is that IT can improve access to clinical information and can support clinical decision making (Hoyt, 2012); also, it is perceived that any data that can be used to understand and influence health outcomes should be collected and is considered relevant (Burke, 2013). However, like all great things, the integration of IT to health care delivery has presented many challenges; in fact, the IOM report Crossing the Quality Chasm, identified Patient privacy as one†¦show more content†¦Essentially, HHS identifies covered entities as health care providers (doctors, clinics etc.), health plans (Health insurance companies or HMOs) and healthcare clearing houses (entities that process nonstandard health) (HHS, 2014). More so, it is important to clarify that the role of the Privacy r ule is to protect certain information that covered entities use and disclose, and this information is called protected health information (PHI) (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2003). Also, the Privacy Rule allows a covered entity or its business associate to create information that is not individually identifiable by following the de-identification standard and implementation specifications in  §164.514(a)-(b) (HHS, 2012). To be more specific, the privacy rule mandates that organizations de-identify the data by removing 18 specific identifiers, which are believed to prevent resultant information from being attributed to a patient (Hoyt, 2012). The eighteen identifiers highlighted within the Privacy Rule are names, all geographic subdivisions smaller than a state, all elements of dates (except yea, telephone numbers, facsimile numbers, electronic mail addresses, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, health plan beneficiary Numbers,