HIPAA....the nightmare....

Nurses General Nursing

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Went to one of the mandatory HIPAA inservices we had the other day. I tell you this is about enough to make me want to get out of health care....I am all for patient's privacy and such but I think some of this has gone too far. We have been told at our hospital that we can't even inquire how a patient is doing, even if we had cared for that patient the day before. I like to know how the patients are doing...I really think it is great when the patient improves but I guess now I won't know anymore. I like to know that my nursing skills and care may have helped someone to regain their health or at least be able to cope with what has been handed to them. Is HIPAA going to make us a less caring profession? I don't about the rest of you, but it makes me feel like I have accomplished something when I know my patients are improving.....maybe I am just self-centered and conceited.

With all this HIPAA stuff, I am afraid to even look in my own patient's charts....wouldn't want to accidentally find something out that I am not suppose to know...I feel a major headache coming on....

Our privacy officer told us that complaints about HIPAA are going to be handled by the Office of Civil Rights, and that they are already receiving complaints about HIPAA violations and the law hasn't even gone into full effect......lawsuit city....wonder how many good healthcare professionals will leave their professions because of "unobtainable" goals for compliance?

I wish there was a website or newsource that could tell us, very factually, who brought about what. Unfortunately, all we can do is try to remember or pay attention to who sponsored what bill that eventually became a law.

While the Republicans and Democrats where arguing over Patient Bill of Rights, concessions were made to try and reach an agreement. One of these concessions was over Privacy Acts. HIPAA arose out of this and affected not only the privacy of our health information concerns but also financial. The big furor was the proposal that HMO's would not be able to legally force their members to use their hand-selected doctors - people should be able to choose their own doctors without penalty. A lot of issues overlapping made this difficult to follow.

You can do a search on HIPAA - there's a zillion website explaining it, promoting it, offering services to get in compliance for it, etc.

In a nutshell, it has to do with confidentialty and the protection of patient information. HIPAA stand for Health Information Portability Act and I forgot what the last "A" stands for...

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Nah... I really don't care who brought about what. I was just curious as to the contradiction.

Politically apathetic,

:D Heather

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Me too Heather, me too. I am over politiced, over-regulated and just plain tired of the whoe shootin match.

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Then again, he did sign the bill in order to make it a law, so...

I'm kinda HIPAA apathetic. In the inservice, I said, just tell me how it affects ME, I couldn't care less how it affects everything else. So far, all I have to do is make sure the screensaver on my work laptop comes on after 60 seconds of no activity and is password locked. Cool, no brainer there. :D

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Specializes in LDRP; Education.
Originally posted by LasVegasRN

In a nutshell, it has to do with confidentialty and the protection of patient information. HIPAA stand for Health Information Portability Act and I forgot what the last "A" stands for...

I remember reading an article on it from Research Practitioner, the professional journal I subscribe to. It does appear though, that the Clinton Admin passed it. :p

I think the privacy issue is really just a portion of HIPAA; I think the ease of employees to transfer insurance policies b/t jobs was the main driving force.

A HIPAA primer for research practitioners

Eileen Rusnak, CIP

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, a number of factors compromise the confidentiality of health information. In order to address the erosion of privacy, Congress included a section in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) authorizing the Department of Health and Human Services to promulgate a set of regulations know as the Privacy Rule. This article discusses the Privacy Rule and its effect on clinical research practices.

Key Words: Authorization, Acknowledgment, Covered Entity, Documentation, Good Privacy Practices, HIPAA, Minimum Necessary, Privacy Rule

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Originally posted by Sourdough

What is HIPPA?

HIPAA is a federal act that is going to into full effect here in the States in April. It effects how we give and receive information about a person's health information. It carries big fines for anyone violating the regs (which are incredibly long). It will be major changes for most healthcare facilities and healthcare providers to comply with the law....it is also going to be a big PIA for the most of us....:( Some of the things that have changed at my facility in preparation for HIPAA are: all faxes (internal & external) must have a cover sheet on them filled out completely, we are only allowed the bare minimum of information about a patient to do our jobs, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember right now. Maybe some of the other posters will be able to come up with more of the "wonderful" regs we have to abide by, or be slapped with monetary fines or worse....:stone

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Originally posted by Sourdough

What is HIPPA?

:confused:

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Originally posted by OBNURSEHEATHER

:confused:

Heather, I think she may be from Canada if you look at her avatar. She probably thinks we are talking in Hebrew or some such language when we talk about HIPAA....:D

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HELP! the word that scares me the most is "fine". will they actually fine me personally if i break a reg? if so who is going to fine me the hospital or the regulation board? where will the money go to? as in who's pocket? :cool:

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Originally posted by deespoohbear

Heather, I think she may be from Canada if you look at her avatar. She probably thinks we are talking in Hebrew or some such language when we talk about HIPAA....:D

Ahhh... I see. :D

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

It has gotten wayyyyy out of hand! It seems we are asking families to leave their babies bedsides all the time. We have taken to giving report outside the room away from the beds, but then you still have to go in and look at the baby then leave the room to ask any questions if there is a parent there.

And now, we aren't allowed to look up our own labs...we can be fired. You tell me, how am I violating my own privacy by looking up my labs? A lot of our PCP's used to tell us to look them up because we could see if something was up and then call the office!

Wonder if we will have to learn Universal Nursing Sign Language next? LOL

And, why can't you ask a patient you cared for the day before how they feel? When they say hi to us, should we say..oh, better go to my Nurse Manager and see if it is okay to talk you today.

Somedays, Walmart looks pretty darn good LOL

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Originally posted by tonchitoRN

HELP! the word that scares me the most is "fine". will they actually fine me personally if i break a reg? if so who is going to fine me the hospital or the regulation board? where will the money go to? as in who's pocket? :cool:

I guess it will be some federal agency since violations of HIPAA are going to the Office of Civil Rights. Who knows, maybe the CIA or the FBI? :cool: Chasing down us we little healthcare people because they have nothing better to do....:rolleyes: I have heard that there can be fines up in the thousands of dollars. I am not sure where the money is going, maybe a kickback to Clinton? (JUST KIDDING, before I get flamed!! ;) ) You can bet the money won't be going to improve the salaries of nurses and other healthcare providers. Probably will go to some fat cat's pocket.....:(

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