Running Head: ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER

Administrative Ethics Paper
Rosa Greer
Axia College of University of Phoenix

Administrative Ethics Paper Administrative ethical issues occur in health care today such as patient privacy, confidentiality or HIPAA. It is best to resolve this type of issue because patient privacy in health care is very important. These policies are designed to protect the rights of patients by making sure personal information of the patient is not disclosed in any way. Protecting a patient’s privacy by way of disclosing personal information and is not to be released without personal formal consent. Also, of employees discussing patient information on the job to people with no knowledge of the patient or even off the job. Many health care organizations enforce privacy policies such as HIPAA and confidentiality although all employees do not abide by such policies. It is being found that more frequently that people from these health care organizations are breaking these policies and their must be changes to provide patients with protection. Administrative ethical issues of the HIPAA Policy within health care organizations must make necessary changes to appropriately protect the rights of patients. The issue at hand is that of health care organizations properly protecting the rights of their patients. The article that will be discussed in this paper is that of OCR issues proposed Modifications to HIPAA Privacy and Security settings (Frank Irving, 2004). The population that is affected by it most has been impacted by such ethical issues brought upon by employees of health care organizations. The population most affected is that of patients within health care organizations. Changes brought upon by the Office for Civil Rights in July of 2010 decided to make changes in regards to the HIPAA Policy. Frank Irving (2010) stated, “The Office for Civil Rights issued a proposed rule containing changes to privacy policies, security and enforcement rules of the HIPAA Policy” (The Politics of Health Care, para. 1). These changes will help to make necessary adjustments to protect the rights of patients within health care organizations and their business associates. There is one main argument used within the article that supports the proposed solution. An argument within the article is that of making a proposal that would ensure changes within the HIPAA Policy. Some direct changes of the HIPAA Policy is that of privacy, enforcement and security rules of patients medical history and to make improvements to each of these rules. These changes would protect its affected population making the HIPAA Policy more effective. These changes would also prevent lawsuits of different malpractices that occur on a daily base within organizations. According to Irving (2010), this proposal took place on July 14, 2010 by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (The Politics of Health Care, 2010). The proposal insisted in this article will eventually provide patients with satisfaction, as they depend on health care organizations to keep their personal information confidential. Ethical and legal issues are reported as the HIPAA Policy continues to make changes. Ethically, it is morally wrong to not provide a patient with confidentiality, especially if they have signed forms stating this. No matter what, a health care organization should not disclose information about a patient if legal steps were taken from the jump. A legal issue of the HIPAA Policy is that of preventing lawsuits of malpractice claims within health care organizations. I say this because malpractice claims are sure to come if employees within a health care organization do not follow all guidelines of the HIPAA Policy. McGraw Hill (N.d) stated, “Health care practitioners who use reasonable care in preventing professional liability claims are least likely to be faced with defending themselves against malpractice claims” (Legal and Ethical Issues in Medical Practice, pg. 42). This statement is important and the policies of HIPAA must be enforced appropriately in order to alleviate malpractice claims within health care organizations. A malpractice issue that may occur is that of a physician releasing a patient from its care because of sexual harassment of a physician to its patient. For example, a patient frequents their physician in which the physician makes sexual remarks to the patient and is making the patient feel uncomfortable due to what is going on. The patient could legally seek advice as to what is going on when visiting their physician and before you know it a malpractice claim is filed. This could lead to serious issues within health care organizations and this is why changes should be made within the HIPAA Policy. Managerial responsibilities are important and are supposed to be the enforcers of such
Policies. The HIPAA Policy within health care organizations is supposed to be carried out by way of managers, leaders of the organization. Jan J.Van Der Aa (2000) stated, “The law is intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the heath care system by standardizing how to exchange data for specific administrative and financial transactions, while protecting the security and confidentiality of that information” (HIPPA- An Overview, para. 1).
With this being said, the HIPAA Policy is as important as we know it and patient confidentiality is a must. It is the duty of managers within health care organizations to carry out the HIPAA Policy and make sure the outcome is effective. If managers carried out this duty as effective as possible, there would be less cases of malpractice claims being brought forth. Patients would have more trust in their physicians if the policies of HIPAA were followed to its fullest extent.
Managers within health care organizations need to be more cautious as to these guidelines when enforcing them because what their employees do may fall back on them. This has been a frequent problem among many health care organizations, but change is soon to come.
Administrative ethical issues occur today within health care organizations giving reason for change within the HIPAA Policy. These organizations must enforce the HIPAA Policy in order to alleviate legal issues that come along with breaking these policies. With the proposal of the Office for Civil Rights, changes can be brought about that will help protect a patients rights more effectively. With hard work and dedication, health care organizations can become more successful if the HIPAA Policy made necessary changes and if leaders of health care organizations properly enforced this policy.

References
Healthcare POV. (2010). The Politics of Health Care: OCR Issues Proposed Modifications to
HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Retrieved December 19, 2010, from http://community.advanceweb.com/blogs/hi_16/archive/2010/08/11/ocr-issues-proposed-modifications-to-hipaa-privacy-and-security-rules.aspx McGrawHill. (N.d). Legal and Ethical Issues in Medical Practice, Including HIPAA. Retrieved
December 19, 2010, from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073520837/588974/SampleChapter03.pdf Van Der Aa, Jan, J. (2000). HIPPA- An Overview. Retrieved December 19, 2010, from
http://www.health.ufl.edu/itcenter/news/hipaa.shtml