Diane Hotaling
HT1000 Week 3 assignment
3/18/2014

The 5W’s behind recent healthcare reform initiatives and how they have, are or can impact the delivery of healthcare and HIM professionals.

There have been many controversies over healthcare reform ideas and all the issues that may or may not arise affecting everything from the delivery and costs to the patients, HIM and surrounding professionals roles, and the politicians and the different ideas they stand behind. Examples of some of the most influential and recent initiatives are HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)enforced in 1996 and ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) and its revision HITECH(Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Act) of 2009 Each of these reforms have impacted the delivery of healthcare and therefore everyone in the U.S and especially with each reform new challenges, changes, benefits and/or problems for the HIM professionals and their roles and all they consist of. An HIM professional can work in many environments, including from home, private offices, doctors offices, nursing homes, hospitals and anywhere else that healthcare and/or PHI and/or EHR are handled. The HIM profession not only exists physically in numerous healthcare places but can work in numerous areas in the field such as medical billing and coding, a secretary, in any health area as a clerk, with many electronic systems such as HHS, MPI, HER, RIS and so many more and as the medical world changes so does the roles, jobs and duties of an HIM professional and thus putting a lot of pressure, responsibilities and issues that may arise from such things. HIPPA, the oldest of the newer reforms listed is an Federal law enacted to ensure the privacy of an individuals protected health information referred to as PHI, provide security for electronic and physical exchange of PHI and