Discuss some of the important issues regarding patients righ

Discuss some of the important issues regarding patients rights and HIPAA that may occur during a disaster.

Solution

Important issues regarding HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

1) \"Don\'t tell anyone anything\" is the biggest concern of many patients and doctors for not disclosing the information at the time of emergency. HIPAA is very reluctant in sharing the information even after a disaster occurs.

2) Unnecessary restrictive requirements and not conveying the information to those who need it and deserve it.

3) The potential inability to share the information could be life threatening.

Say for example, assume a road accident in which all the 5 people traveling by a car are hit by a lorry in a hit-and-run case. Two people died on the spot and rest three are taken to hospital are seriously injured. The families of the injured have asked for the medical information of the three seriously ill patients and have been denied by HIPAA for sharing the medical information to the family members.

4) Creating obstructions for biomedical research by HIPAA. Not sharing the patients information for the clinical trails. Since Biomedical research needs access to a lot of patient information which is used in the clinical trails of the new drugs

5) As per HIPAA, they are have no objection to share the patient records to their family and friends if the patient gives his permission in writing. Say for example, if a patient met with an accident and say if he is in coma, then how could HIPAA take an undertaking from the patient?

All the above rules are very weird. The purpose of HIPAA is to share critical medical information at the time of emergency situations. But HIPAA fails to help even at such situations