The Electronic Health Record And The Movement Toward The...

The advancement of the electronic health record and the movement toward the digital age compelled policies, procedures, and standardizations to improve quality, safety and efficiency of the electronic health record, as well as reduce disparities of patient data of the positive HIV population. The course outcomes that my paper will address are the rules and regulations regarding privacy, confidentiality, and compliance with special attention to the HIPAA Privacy and Security rules on our local, state, federal and various regulatory agencies, and the enforcement authority of these agencies for patients with positive HIV. I plan to recognize the ethical issues and barriers for patients with HIV and the use of the computerized health†¦show more content†¦Inappropriate disclosure of these patients’ medical condition can have serious outcomes. Therefore, federal and state laws have been created to keep patients’ healthcare information confidential. All heal th care providers and social service providers along with federal and state laws are required to protect the patients’ health information. A federal law known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of a person’s health information. HIPAA defines what health information must be protected and specifies what must be done to protect patients privacy and security. While HIPAA does not specially address the positive HIV patient, regulations have been important in protecting these patients from discrimination related to their medical condition. â€Å"Pennsylvania Act 148 named the Confidentiality of HIV Related Information Act states that a health care provider or social service provider cannot share HIV test results without written permission with the exception in limited instances.† (The Affordable Care Act | Policy and Law | HIV/AIDS | CDC, 2016) In Pennsylvania, health care organizations, social service pr oviders, and clinical laboratories are require to report those patients with HIV/AIDS to the local health department. The local health department is required to keep this information confidential. The importance of