Health

What Are The Main Concerns About The Proposed Changes To The HIPAA Privacy Rule?

In the past year, there have been numerous breaches on people’s information that should be safely stored. When a person visits their physician or a doctor, the last thing they want to have to think about is if the information that is connected to them is safe. Because there have been so many breaches this year, new proposed changes have been enacted to the HIPAA laws to stop these attacks and help ease people’s fears about having their information and lives stolen by malicious hackers. Hackers have found new and creative methodologies to get into private systems, and because of that, recent actions have to take place as a result. The fight to keep your information safe is crucial, and they understand that, which is why the laws are changing.

Strengthening Patient’s Rights

The patients who go to meet their physicians and the companies with your records have rights, and they deserve to have their information kept safely and securely. It is not fair to have their data stolen. It is not the fault of the companies in many cases. It is the fault of the malicious hackers that attempt to steal this information.

Because patients need to access their information and have a right to do so, the HIPAA rule has changed to strengthen the ability to access that information if you are the patient in question. They have improved the security for the caring of coordination, the management of individual cases, and attempting to better coordinate for individuals to use for themselves and use your information in a health crisis properly.

In addition to this in regards to Covid, opioid use, and public emergencies, and how health care providers can protect people’s interests and health privacy in a better manner. They believe that by strengthening the patient’s rights, the barriers that have been in the way will fade, and reforms will be reducing the strain that people have come to believe will be forthcoming.

Why People Are Concerned With HIPAA Rule

The people who have been concerned with the HIPAA rule are that there has been a lot of misinformation. In addition to that, there are still privacy concerns and issues that would occur for smaller practices. For example, smaller practices are concerned about management activities between various corporations. They are also concerned with the timeline that it will take for the final changes.

It has been proposed that the final timeline for all of the changes that these laws are trying to enact won’t be complete until the end of this year or possibly next year. However, some changes have been passed and put in place already. That does leave people confused and upset because they are unsure if their information is safe now and what they can do to have relief now. They wonder if the doctor they visit is safe, if their patient portal is being hacked, or if there are options to feel more secure.

People who followed the cases this year saw that over eighteen thousand patients had their information potentially compromised in a matter of five minutes. Unfortunately, nothing was able to be done for almost a week. As such, they have those same concerns about privacy and fear that they are not safe. Another case that left people baffled was how a company had over seventy thousand elderly patients who had their accounts potentially compromised. They were only notified in an email after it happened. That left them confused, and most haven’t understood the new laws because they fear the same thing will happen again, and they don’t want to constantly be in fear about practices that are being put in place.

Health Emergency Disclosures

One of the substantial and subtle changes to the HIPAA law is how health emergencies are playing out. The proposed HIPAA rule allows for the patient’s information to be released in cases of a severe threat that is in place. This is put into place for what is believed to be the best interest of the patient. The issue here is that patients have been uncomfortable with other people making medical decisions when they are not sure if those people have their best interests at heart.

While the patients get to choose the person who gets to have that say, that level of comfortability with that person should make the situation more manageable. However, people don’t know others’ intentions, making them suspicious of letting them have medical decisions. HIPAA is trying to achieve a safer solution for a patient in a life or death situation or a situation that they can’t work out themselves. An example here is if a patient has been bleeding and is now dizzy and disoriented. Imagine for a brief moment that you need to have emergency surgery or something serious to help you, but you physically can’t respond, and they have to have your permission. That would be where your trusted person would decide for you. It is not made to make a patient feel scared but protected and safe if anything would ever come up where you would need to be protected and secure.

Putting Your Concerns At Ease

The HIPAA rule that has been put in place is not meant to frighten or concern people. Instead, the goal is to help people and to understand what is being offered. Now that you have been able to review the facts and see that the laws are trying to help you and not hurt you, you can be assured that you understand what is going on.

The laws will be enacted this year, and some of the changes are taking longer, so they will not take place until next year. The different rules that are being put in place are to ease people’s worries about privacy and the damage that the new HIPAA laws have placed on small practices.

Piyushi

Blogger By Passion, Programmer By Love and Marketing Beast By Birth.

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