HIPAA Violation Research Paper Example

HIPAA Violation Research Paper Example HIPAA Violation Paper HIPAA Violation Paper Ever wonder what the acronym HIPAA stands for, how it relates to health care professionals, as well as you, the patient? Violations of the HIPAA Privacy rule greatly impacts health care professionals, specifically those working in a pharmacy, such as pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Let’s read further to learn more about HIPAA, more specifically the Privacy Rule. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, is a federal law that contains national standards, created to protect a patient’s medical and health information, among other things as well. All health care workers, including pharmacists and pharmacy staff, who have access to patient information must comply with HIPAA and the Privacy Rule (Christenson). In August 2002, the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information or â€Å"Privacy Rule†, was established to implement the requirements of the HIPAA Act. This rule describes what health workers need to do to protect the privacy of their patients’ health information. The Privacy Rule was established to protect patient health information by placing limits on how patient information can be used or disclosed. The Privacy Rule is just one part of HIPAA, but nonetheless a very important part to health care workers, including pharmacy employees. (HIPPA for Pharmacy Staff) With the establishment of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a patient’s right to have his or her health information kept private and secure became more than just an ethical obligation of physicians and hospitals t became the law. Protecting patients’ privacy must be part of the daily routine of a pharmacy and is the responsibility of the pharmacist, pharmacy technicians, and the entire staff, therefore the Privacy Rule affects the everyday practice of a pharmacy. To protect the rights of pharmacy patients, pharmacy technicians need to fully understand and be familiar with the laws of the Privacy Rule. As you perform your job, patient privacy needs to be protected. Patients expect privacy when they receive healthcare, including within a pharmacy. This means that they expect all of their medical information to be kept private and confidential. A patient’s privacy is violated when pharmacy staff or any other health care workers improperly use, disclose or allow unauthorized access to confidential health information. (HHS.  gov) You may ask yourself, â€Å"What is considered private health information and what type of information needs to be protected? † â€Å"Protected Health Information†, or rather PHI, is the common phrase referred to in HIPAA rules for the pieces of information which must be kept confidential. The most common protected health information a pharmacy keeps is the patients name, address and phone number, date of birth, age, Health Plan, Medicare or Medicaid ID number, Diagnosis or diagnosis code, and Social Security number. There are, of course, other pieces of information that is considered PHI. PHI is considered any piece of information that identifies an individual patient. Pharmacies keep records which contain PHI in order to care for patients, bill for products and services or operate effectively. Your pharmacy computer records, prescription files, dispensing reports and backup files all contain PHI. Privacy has to do with patient rights to control sharing of their PHI. Any person has the right to choose whether or not they want their health information shared with anyone except those directly involved in their health care. (HIPPA for Pharmacy Staff) Most of the time, health care workers do all they can to protect their patients confidential health information, but unfortunately there are times when a patient’s private medical information is used and disclosed in the wrong way, and violation of the Privacy Rule occurs. Consider the following scenario; Mary, a pharmacy technician working in a small community pharmacy, is on the phone in the prescription department joking with a friend about a patient named Jack, a 76-year old family friend who had just been prescribed Viagra. Jack’s neighbor and close friend overheard the technician’s conversation and became highly offended. She plans on telling Jack what she heard as soon as she gets home. Ask yourself this questions †¦ â€Å"has Mary, the pharmacy technician, just violated the HIPAA privacy rule? The answer is of course â€Å"yes†! Mary has violated a patient’s privacy by discussing health matters with someone who is not a health care worker and within earshot of other patients. (HIPPA for Pharmacy Staff) As stated before, protecting patients’ privacy must be part of the day-to-day work of the pharmacy dispensing staff as well as all employees who have access to patient information to protect against improper disclosure. Discussions about patient care and any personal medical information needs to be kept private to reduce the likelihood that those who do not need to know will overhear. Many times legal cases may occur involving violations of the HIPPA Privacy Rule. One such case is that involving the Rite Aid Pharmacy Corporation, which was cited for violation of the HIPPA Privacy Rule. Rite Aid was reported to have disposed of prescriptions and labeled pill bottles containing individuals’ identifiable information in industrial trash containers that were accessible to the public. Disposing of individuals’ health information in an industrial trash container accessible to unauthorized persons is not compliant with several requirements of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and exposes the individuals’ information to the risk of identity theft and other crimes. â€Å"It is critical that companies, large and small, build a culture of compliance to protect consumers’ right to privacy and safeguard health information. OCR is committed to strong enforcement of HIPAA,† said Georgina Verdugo, director of OCR. It was also noted that Rite Aid failed to implement adequate policies and procedures to appropriately safeguard patient information during the disposal process and Rite Aid failed to adequately train employees on how to dispose of such information properly. As a result of this violation, Rite Aid agreed to pay $1 million dollars to settle the HIPPA Privacy Case. This case clearly defines the importance of making sure that employees fully understand and are properly trained in all of the HIPPA rules and regulations when it comes to maintaining patient privacy and confidentiality. In Conclusion, the HIPPA Privacy Rule greatly impacts any health care professional, specifically relating to a pharmacy and its entire staff when dealing with patient information on a daily basis. As an employee working in a pharmacy, whether it is a community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, or any other type of pharmacy, one of your jobs will be to help maintain privacy for patients as they receive care and help protect the confidentiality of their private information. There will be times when you will hear or see patient information and you are expected to not seek out information about patients unless it is job-related. When you do see or hear information in the course of doing your job, always remember that the information is should be considered confidential and you are not allowed to repeat it or share it with others. As a future pharmacy technician, I will come in contact with patients on a daily basis and will be required to use their personal information as a part of my job duties. Therefore it is my responsibility to fully understand and become properly educated with the HIPPA Privacy Rule in order to protect the privacy of all the patients I will encounter. Whether I am on the job or off the job, it is my obligation to adhere to the HIPPA privacy rule and keep every bit of a patient’s information confidential. Proper use of this information, using it only as needed for prescription use is required. In addition, I will also play an important role in developing policy and procedures for using patient information and identifying situations to which the Privacy Rule applies. A pharmacy needs to be committed to protecting patient privacy and confidentiality, and pharmacy technicians are just one important piece of the whole team to make sure that patient confidentiality is being maintained. The ultimate goal is to keep the patients best interest and treat them with the utmost respect and dignity. Understanding the HIPPA Privacy rule can be very overwhelming and confusing, but just remember that patient privacy should be top priority for pharmacy staff. HIPAA has many rules, but most are pretty much common sense and are pretty easy to follow.

New Enland vs. The Chesapeake Region essays

New Enland vs. The Chesapeake Region essays The New World was a place of interest in the beginning of the 1600s, with families, single men, women all settling in either the Chesapeake region or New England. From the start, the New England and Chesapeake colonies differed, however by the 1700s the colonies two distinctly different societies formed. All the people had the same mother country; however, the purposes for their exodus to the New World were unrelated. Families in New England settled for religious freedom and men in the south seeking for riches and gold. In 1606 the men who petitioned the king to settle in the New World were divided into two companies; The Virginia Company of Plymouth and the Virginia Company of London. The Plymouth Company only lasted one winter but the Virginia Company was able to establish the first successful settlement, Jamestown. The Jamestown community lacked leadership and no government. John Smith quickly took the colony over and kept the settlers from starving. The companys reason for the expedition was to find gold. Smith summarized the thoughts of the gold seekers in Virginia in a short excerpt. The worst [among us were the gold seekers who] with their golden promises made all men their slaves in hope of recompense. There was no talk...but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold... Since no gold was found, Smith was overthrown by the king. Anarchy took over the colony as people starved and forts fell. On the other hand, when the first settlement in New England was established, from before they even stepped on land, a set of rules was made called the Mayflower Compact. Even though the first colony in Plymouth failed years before, the Separatists that landed in Plymouth had good leadership and were able to overcome the harsh winters even when they had few supplies or knowledge. As in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1636, a list of rules was given to the colonists to keep in order called the Articles of A...

Buying a Fake GED or Professional Certificate

Buying a Fake GED or Professional Certificate You can buy fake certifications for just about anything. There are fake GEDs, continuing education units, massage therapist certificates, hairstylist certificates, accounting, plumbing, even teaching certificates... but should you buy them? Its Not a Good Idea If you want to throw your money away  and buy some bad karma to boot, go ahead, but you will only add to the trouble in your life, not solve problems. You will be out $100, or more! You will not have the education to back up this fake diploma. You will not feel any better about your missing accomplishments. You will not fool anybody, especially an employer, and if you do fool them, it wont be for long. If you cant perform the job you got with your fake diploma or certificate, you wont keep the job. Youll likely be shamed and then fired. You also run the risk of being sued, especially if you hurt someone, and youll be right back where you started, less the money you spent on the fake diploma. Dont be a sucker. Earn your diploma the right way. Earn your certificate the right way; by learning and doing. It doesnt matter if no one ever finds out. You know, and youre the only one who matters. Roadblocks to Going Back to School There are many reasons that going back to school might seem too hard. But there is help out there. You didnt graduate high school. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if your goal is to earn a GED or high school equivalency certificate, congratulations. Its never too late, and this certificate can make a huge difference in your life. Learn more about  GED and High School Equivalency.You feel ready ​to go back to school  but arent sure what to train for. If youre not sure what to study but want to provide for yourself and/or your family, choose to learn something that will help you find a great job.Youre not sure how to pay for school. Finding aid as a non-traditional student can feel overwhelming, but money for college is available to almost anyone. Learn more about financial aid for non-traditional students to help alleviate some of your money worries.You dont want to or cant go to a physical campus and youre not sure about online universities.  Lots and lots of people are going back to school online, in all kinds of subjects. The beauty of online courses is that yo u can take them from anywhere you have an Internet connection. Youre not sure you have enough drive. If a little motivation is all you need to get back in the classroom, youll find it here. Thinking positive is easy, and its free! Learning how to write SMART goals is a great place to start.

Mental health problems across the life span Essay

Mental health problems across the life span - Essay Example Auditory hallucinations had been another symptom. The voices of her classmates and acquaintances at school kept repeatedly coming back to her. She remembered the incident where she indulged in a ‘buying spree’ for clothes which did not suit her, after thumbing through fashion catalogues. The clothes had been a size larger. That incident could have been due to the feeling of inflated self esteem which characterizes the depression in bipolar disorder. Developing therapeutic skills through the tools of psychiatric nursing, which are ‘listening, watching and being present is the essence of nursing care in psychiatry. (Frisch, 2002). Pamela was observed well. She behaved differently each day. Sometimes she would be looking with-drawn and would appear as if looking through me. My morning greetings would not elicit any response. She needed some coaxing to begin her morning ablutions beginning from brushing her teeth. Fatigue and drowsiness appeared to stop her from even getting up from bed on some days. There was a difficulty to get her to consume her medications too (Mitchell, 2006, p. 567). The reluctance to take them on certain days would be changed to an attitude of compliance depending on whether the care-giver on that day was empathetic or not. She was gloomy at times and completely preoccupied. It was difficult to understand that a gay and energetic young girl had become a miserable withdrawn personality in the words of her mother. Her friends were calling frequently to find out about her. They would have liked to visit but they may not have seen a friend they knew. The mother thereby discouraged the friends. Rehabilitation therapy had been instituted in the center for all inpatients. Pamela had not consented to the psychotherapy treatment in the institution. Problems still existed for her. She was extremely distressed the other day when she was asked to have her lunch. Her reason was that her classmates were speaking to her and they had not

Fourth Essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fourth Assignment - Essay Example Each of the three books depicts a different kind of alternative family. The families in the books all have one thing in common, however. They all choose to be together and love each other regardless of anything that happens. In this way, these alternative families are able to function better than many traditional families. The theme throughout all of the books is that people find love and support in unexpected places. This doesn’t just refer to romantic love, but all kinds of love; especially the love that exists between good friends. The friends in turn use the love they’ve found to form families. The three different books all begin with traditional families that have been fractured in some way. In Plainsong, Tom Guthrie’s family is falling apart because of his wife’s growing depression, and she eventually leaves him. Victoria loses her family because first her father and then her mother have abandoned her. In Cold Mountain, almost all of the main charact ers’ close family members have died, and they all find themselves stuck far away from the places they think of as home. In Bridget Jonses’s Diary, Bridget appears to feel that her family is slowly falling apart because she has grown up and her parents’ marriage seems to be ending. In each book, the main characters must find ways to make their own new families, each in different ways. The characters in Plainsong make up many different kinds of families. ... Tom loves his children, and the loss of their mother naturally hurts them very much. The fact that they are able to accept the loss of their mother and move on shows that they love and trust their father. Even though things are hard for him, he continues doing his job as their father. When Maggie joins their family at the end, she is not completing a broken family. She is just adding an extra piece to it. Maggie chooses the McPheron brothers to take care of Victoria and her baby because she knows that they need someone to take care of just as badly as Victoria needs someone to care for her. Because the two brothers live together, they don’t realize that they need someone else until they learn to love Victoria and her child. They don’t notice how alone they are until they aren’t alone anymore. Maggie is right in thinking that the brothers are the perfect people to take care of Victoria. Their kindness is apparent right away. In comparison to her cruel mother, the McPherons are so different that Victoria is confused by them, but they end up becoming the best possible family that Victoria and her baby could have found. Her abusive boyfriend wants to take her away and have a traditional family with her—a married couple and their child. Victoria has to choose between the traditional family that society expects her to have and the quirky alternative family she has found with the McPheron brothers. Victoria chooses to stay with the brothers because they are the ones who protect her and treat her kindly. Maggie Jones is the most important character in the book. She is the one who creates families. She doesn’t just bring Victoria and the McPheron brothers together, but also brings the family created by the McPherons, Victoria and her baby

Case Analysis of Tata Motors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Case Analysis of Tata Motors - Essay Example It was a very conscious effort considering the situation of global car market and the company’s competitive advantages. Nano has been marketed as the â€Å"World’s Cheapest Car† and the company has adopted a very unique development and business model for this special child of it. One of the most important advantages that the company enjoys is that it has more than enough knowledge about its home market i.e. India, its competitors and its suppliers. Tata Motors and its chairman Ratan Tata want Nano to create same magic that Mini did in Britain and Beetle did in Germany. Furthermore, the company and its visionary management could foresee the future of global car market which is expected to be very much dominated by the low-cost as well as ultra-low-cost cars. This paper includes the answers of four questions that are based on a case of Tata Motors and its Nano. The paper aims to discuss the reasons behind the Tata Motors’ decision to enter the market of ultr a-low-cost cars, competitive advantages of Tata Motors as well as Nano, probable screening criteria for the Nano’s IMS process and the potential market for Nano beyond India and China. Main Reasons for Tata Motors entering the ultra-low-cost car market Global car industry and its competitive landscape have been experiencing significant alterations which are permanent and dramatic. One of the main reasons behind this is the change in nature of demand of the end users across the globe. A completely new and unique class of car buyers has been emerging in the industrializing countries like China and India. Such incident has created a huge potential for cars which can be found in the price range of $2500 - $5000. Such cars are popular among the manufacturers and buyers as ultra-low-cost cars. A report of A. T. Kearney says that till 2020, almost 16 million cars from this category will be sold every year. India and other Southeast Asian countries will be the key market for such typ e of cars (A. T. Kearney, 2008). Chinese and Russian consumers are expected to look beyond ultra-low-cost cars as they have moved ahead of their Indian counterparts in terms of income level. This new category of cars is likely to experience tremendous demand especially from India. In 2005, almost 208 million Indian had an income that theoretically allows them to buy a car that costs in between $2500 - $5000. It is expected that by the end of 2020 there will be around 439 million people who will be looking for these ULCCs. It is important to mention that most of these people will be ‘first time buyer’ of car. Research shows that if the car is priced at around $4000 then almost 270 million Indians will be in a position to buy it, whereas if the starting price is set at around $2500 then the number moves up to 530 million (A. T. Kearney, 2008). Tata Motors, being an India based car maker knows the market more than any other company. The company is very much aware of the ab ove mentioned facts and figures; hence this huge potential of ULCCs has definitely influenced Tata Motors to make an entry in ULCC market. Tata Motors did its own research before coming up with the plan of Nano. The company targeted the market that no other auto maker in the country has done it. It has targeted the two wheeler owners. India is such a country where people use two-wheelers as their

Strategic Management - News Paper business Essay

Strategic Management - News Paper business - Essay Example If management wants to stress on the importance of customer needs they may vary from area to area in the regions the firm offers its products. Innovation can be considered as prime need of the customer in the case of weightage to customer needs. Every body covers the news, but the presentation matters. If the presentation is against the interests of a particular community they may be against the organization. So presentation of the news and analysis of the events must be according to the needs and interests of various customers in different areas. Desired Position: It is important to meet the customer needs in every business and industry. Here the needs of customers are timely delivery, publishing and presenting the problems in their areas, critical analysis of current national and international issues, interacting with the customer to let him express his views, to make government officials and heads of departments and governments to talk communicate with the people through our newspaper. The innovation in this area can be made possible by selecting a different topic and a new problem before out competitors pick and communicate with the people. The innovation here lies in continuity. ... The strategy canvas: The strategy that gives success in this business is not only to market the product but also getting advertisements. Generally in this business getting advertisements is the way to get profits. Obtaining advertisements depends upon the circulation of the newspaper. More the circulation the more number of advertisements the news paper can get. One can fix more tariffs for the ads also. The tariffs depend upon two factors: 1. The area that is covered by newspaper, 2. The circulation of the newspaper. If we want to be a head of our competitor having equal circulation with us, we must gather more ads for more tariff. This is made possible if the newspaper is supplied in more number of areas than our competitor. Though we are having an equal circulation with our competitor by selling our newspaper out of the state (if our competitor sells within our state) and out of the country (if our competitor sells his news paper within our country) and in more countries (if our competitor sells his product in other countries also). This strategy involves high establishment costs regarding the installation of offices and edition centers regarding collection of advertisements and publication of newspaper. But this investment will be fruitful in long term as it gives upper hand over competitor in increasing the circulation in future and deciding high tariffs for advertising in our paper in present. Along with newspaper one can publish magazines also. This thing will give an advantage to our infra structure as more than one product can be launched from the same infrastructure. This gives publicity without an advertisement as all the readers of magazine know about the newspaper and the readers of newspaper know about the magazine. This