Ethical Issues in Medical Practices - Essay Example

Many a time in courtrooms there have been incidents when lawyers or rivals have been able to search thorough a persons medical records and have been able to turn the case on its head because they have been able to find out some medical condition that the opponent had or for which they are under treatment and hence there have been hindrances in providing justice. The revelation of such information might also be a source of shame for the concerned person because he might not want a certain medical condition to be revealed to the world, for instance the patients of aids have been shunned by the society and this leads to the destruction of self image and self concept and the concerned person can only lead a hermit like life from that point onwards.

What if a person, who does not have a contagious disease, wants to live a normal life and function as he did before having the disease His whole life would be disrupted due to a disclosure of a medical condition and who is to blame for that Though there are many federal rules and regulations for such instances but there were still loop holes in the system that had to identified and secured and this had to be done in a very comprehensive manner so that security should be provided to every person and the implementation of such a system would not create more hindrances in the health care system.

In these conditions the HIPAA (Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act) developed a comprehensive plan and covered all aspects of the disclosure of health care information, the suggestions and the rules and regulations stated by the HIPAA have been implemented and hence we can conclude that the security of health care information is a fundamental right that every one is entitled and that should exactly be the case.Rules and Regulations of the HIPAA: There are certain rules and regulations that the HIPAA needs all health care service providers to follow and the paper is based on analyzing these rules and regulations.a) General Provision: The privacy rules allows certain incidental and uses and disclosure but it needs that the reasonable safeguard and minimum necessary standard has been met with where ever it is applicable (Reference: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/guidelines/incidentalud.pdf) this is in place to ensure the working of the health care system in an efficient manner so that people do not feel hesitant when they need to use the health care services and it should not also be a burden on health care professionals therefore it is permitted under the rules and regulations of the HIPAA that a physician can disclose the medical conditions to a surgeon at another hospital because that needs to be done but even when this is being done the reasonable safeguard and minimum necessary standard rule has to be complied with.b) Reasonable Safe Guards: An entity must have all the proper checks in place for the security of the information regarding health care of patients, this should be done on the technical front, administrative front and also physical safeguards should be made.

Incidental disclosure of information is reduced to the bare minimal when these safeguards are in place and most health care insurances have applied the following in their organizational culture to reduce the risks of incidental closures:1) Speaking quietly when discussing a patient's