The healthcare industry’s migration to the cloud is inevitable—driven by an irresistible blend of competitive realities and patient demand. As in any major change in business or technology, early movers tend to reap the benefits. As consumers are becoming more tech savvy, the demand for information at the touch of their fingertips is also becoming more demanding. The move to cloud computing from a healthcare standpoint is taking precedence above the old fashioned way of healthcare.
Research has shown that cloud computing is not only good for companies but also for the environment. By moving e-mail, patient records and applications into the cloud, it will not only save the company money but also move into the future. Healthcare Professional Office, Insurance companies and Laboratories would all be able to access patient records without the patient having to fill out multiples of the same forms over and over again.
The healthcare industry has access to a patient’s personal health information, in electronic and paper form, and is responsible for protecting this information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) establish requirements for the healthcare industry. The establishment and implementation of an effective information security plan is critical to meet these requirements and ensure this protection. There are however challenges and risks that must be addressed. Cloud computing can be defined as the use of computer resources without the expense of owing the hardware and software. Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular in major corporations as a way to gain use of specific programs, applications and even hardware by way of the Internet.
“Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as ...
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...They would also be able to respond quicker to changes in healthcare laws, rules and regulations and would be able to react in a positive manner.
With the Affordable Healthcare Act taking effect this year, it is putting the consumer in control of their healthcare options. Insurance companies and doctors must now meet the mandates of this new act and still provide the quality care that patients need and demand. Moving patient records into the cloud will aid in lowering the costs to the individual doctor’s offices. Intense cost-management pressures result from the increasing demand for services as budgets shrink across the globe. In the United States in particular, incoming healthcare reform is expected to add an increasing number of newly insured citizens to the healthcare system. This is likely to add to the already high service demand of the aging population.
How would you like to keep track of your personal health information record in your computer at home? The electronic data exchange was one of the goals of the government to improve the delivery and competence of the U.S. healthcare system. To achieve this plan, the U.S. Congress passed a regulation that will direct its implementation. The Department of Health and Human Services is the branch of the government that was assigned to oversee the HIPAA rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a national public law in the United States that was created to improve health insurability, prevent insurance abuse and to protect the privacy and security of a person’s health information.
As the evolution of healthcare from paper documentation to electronic documentation and ordering, the security of patient information is becoming more difficult to maintain. Electronic healthcare records (EHR), telenursing, Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) are a major part of the future of medicine. Social media also plays a role in the security of patient formation. Compromising data in the information age is as easy as pressing a send button. New technology presents new challenges to maintaining patient privacy. The topic for this annotated bibliography is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Nursing informatics role is imperative to assist in the creation and maintenance of the ease of the programs and maintain regulations compliant to HIPAA. As a nurse, most documentation and order entry is done electronically and is important to understand the core concepts of HIPAA regarding electronic healthcare records. Using keywords HIPAA and informatics, the author chose these resources from scholarly journals, peer reviewed articles, and print based articles and text books. These sources provide how and when to share patient information, guidelines and regulation d of HIPAA, and the implementation in relation to electronic future of nursing.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is a law designed “to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes.”1 HIPAA mandates that covered entities must employ technological means to ensure the privacy of sensitive information. This white paper intends to study the requirements put forth by HIPAA by examining what is technically necessary for them to be implemented, the technological feasibility of this, and what commercial, off-the-shelf systems are currently available to implement these requirements.
Abstract: Electronic medical databases and the ability to store medical files in them have made our lives easier in many ways and riskier in others. The main risk they pose is the safety of our personal data if put on an insecure an insecure medium. What if someone gets their hands on your information and uses it in ways you don't approve of? Can you stop them? To keep your information safe and to preserve faith in this invaluable technology, the issue of access must be addressed. Guidelines are needed to establish who has access and how they may get it. This is necessary for the security of the information a, to preserve privacy, and to maintain existing benefits.
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
With today's use of electronic medical records software, information discussed in confidence with your doctor(s) will be recorded into electronic data files. The obvious concern is the potential for your records to be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations. Fortunately, this catastrophic scenario will likely be avoided. Congress addressed growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data, and in 1996 passed “The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” (HIPAA). HIPAA sets the national standard for electronic transfers of health data.
Healthcare professionals associated with medical billing and coding know the progress the technology has made so far. In the last few decades, medical billing and coding has switched from being a paper-based system to a computerized format. Under HIPAA laws, medical practitioners had to develop new software in order to send out electronic bills. With the advent of electronic medical records (EMR), with one touch of a button, doctors, Nurse Practitioners and PAs can gain access to all the care a patient has ever received from every healthcare facility the patients visited previously and can figure out possible illnesses. This enables statistical documentation of the population as a whole as well. EMR can also make the healthcare system more transparent and allow integration with reimbursement data. As the healthcare system changes, this will prevent unnecessary costs and make it easier to get the reimbursements needed to treat a patient.
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
Health information opponents has question the delivery and handling of patients electronic health records by health care organization and workers. The laws and regulations that set the framework protecting a user’s health information has become a major factor in how information is used and disclosed. The ability to share a patient document using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is a critical component in the United States effort to show transparency and quality of healthcare records while protecting patient privacy. In 1996, under President Clinton administration, the US “Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)” established national standards for the safeguard of certain health information. As a result, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or (HIPAA) was established. HIPAA security standards required healthcare providers to ensure confidentiality and integrity of individual health information. This also included insurance administration and insurance portability. According to Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), an organization must guarantee the integrity, confidentiality, and security of sensitive patient data (Heckle & Lutters, 2011).
The future of healthcare will largely be affected by the changing demographics in the United States. Halaweish & Alam (2015), suggest by 2050 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 years or older, an increase from the current 1 in 9 Americans. In addition to the increase in aging adults, the oldest Americans, those 85 and older will also demonstrate a significant
In order to integrate health information systems and ensure security of a patients stored information, I think it would be wise to incorporate more than one method in order to provide optimum security. Devices such as CD’s and USB drives can easily get lost, are unable to provide one hundred percent secure security and it slows down the process to provide a patient with care. Online storage clouds integrated with other forms of protection, like the patient card and pin number, can allow us to use online storage and better fight identities being stolen. The future of healthcare is technology centered and healthcare needs to be ready to embrace it. Health information systems have much to offer if they are developed properly. Health information systems have the potential to take the quality of patient care to a whole other level, a level that will increase efficacy an create a vessel for information to transfer. Making sure that information is securely stored and that the individual who is accessing that file from a storage database will not jeopardize a patient’s
Cloud computing is able to increase the speed of business. Cloud computing offers the speed to make computing resources on an instance basis, not just need to first survey time and skilled resources in design and implement infrastructure and applications to deploy and test it. Cloud computing can engance revenue, share bigger market, or other advantages.
More firms and industries are adopting cloud computing because of its flexibility as well as convenience. The health care industry on the other hand has been very slow when it comes to the adoption of this new trend. However, gradually many hospitals as well as clinics have been able to recognize the benefits of cloud computing and most of them have embraced this new technology to revolutionize their procedures. In the 21st century, it is extremely hard and challenging for physicians to keep track of all the data that exists from the patient records to insurance information. The traditional system is often a burden as one has to transfer physical files from one facility to another. This process is tiresome and cumbersome; it also wastes time and money that could have otherwise been put into other productive uses (Spagnoletti 12). The cloud storage systems often allow organizations to place data on each and every centralized electronic system that can be accessed anytime from anywhere and anytime. The healthcare industry often has to deal with large amounts of data, and the cloud services often help them to manage as well as access health records effectively in order to provide patient care in an effective and efficient manner.
Rupp, Scott. "What’s Your Plan? Cloud as Disaster Recovery for Healthcare IT and Healthcare Consultants." Electronic Health Reporter. Millerrupp, LLC, 23 May 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .
E-health is coming a fast moving trend, for instance, having a medical treatment for example- clinic at home. According to J.Cheng, Q.Cheng and Y.Wang(2006), “E-health, including telemedicine featured by conducting health-care transactions over the Internet, has been revolutionizing the well-being of human society”. Transferring information between heath care facilities can be a challenge daily so using e-health providers which help in order to transmit information through the internet in a time efficient way. Patients’ personal medical data should be transferred in a safe, secure and private way to avoid invaders. However, by using the internet to transmit these sensitive data, they are challenges and threats of information misemploy. The Concepts and Requirements- As cited from J.Cheng, Q.Cheng and Y.Wang (2006), “Security in e-health is an integrated concept requiring the confidentiality, accountability, integrity, and availability of medical