Stolen Health Information Case Study
Sarah Kipp
HIM113- Law & Ethics in Health Information
Instructor Michelle Landis
November 29, 2012

Introduction
A patient’s right to privacy is one of the most important and protected elements of healthcare today. Patient health information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and even more so by the HIPAA Privacy Rule. “The HIPAA Privacy Rule is a key federal law governing the privacy and confidentiality of patient information.” (Brodnik, Rinehart-Thompson, Reynolds. 2012 pg. 215.) The law governing patient privacy has two goals, “to provide an individual with greater rights with respect to his or her health information” and “to provide greater privacy protections for one’s health information, which serves to limit access by others.” (Brodnik, Rinehart-Thompson, Reynolds. 2012 pg. 215) HIPAA security rule

Within the HIPAA Privacy Rule there are security rules that further govern the release and protection of protected health information that is stored, maintained and transmitted in an electronic format. In the context of the HIPAA laws, security “refers to protecting information from loss, unauthorized access, or misuse, along with protecting its confidentiality.” (Brodnik, Rinehart-Thompson, Reynolds. 2012 pg. 272) In the case of the employee getting fired for patients’ records being stolen, we are looking sp...

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