Anthem is one of the United States’ largest health insurance companies. It is the largest managed health care company in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. In February of 2015, hackers stole the names, social security numbers, medical IDs, physical addresses, e-mail addresses, employment information, income data, birth dates and other personal information of about 80 million Anthem and other Blue Cross and Blue Shield members and former members. It is believed to be the largest cyber-attack that has ever occurred in health care history. It has been described as a very sophisticated attack. The source of this attack is still unknown, but several reports have linked it to Chinese hackers. All the company’s product lines were affected including Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and others. Anthem has 37.5 million members enrolled in its affiliated health plans and serves 68.5 million people through all its subsidiary businesses, which includes Medicaid. The CEO Joseph Swedish wrote to its members "I want to personally apologize to each of you for what has happened, as I know you expect us to protect your information. We will continue to do everything in our power to make our systems and security …show more content…
In my research, I found that most health organizations like Anthem have been slower than other organizations such as financial ones to implement necessary technical safeguards like keeping personal information in separate databases that can be closed off in an attack. The more sensitive information needs to be protected in a way that it cannot be broken. Anthem's internal database was not secure, so I feel if they had more security measures in place at the time through encryption, firewalls, an intrusion detection system, and user authentication this might have given them better protection and controlled fraudulent access to the
Due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law on March 23rd, 2010; health care in the US is presently in a state of much needed transition. As of 2008, 46 Million residents (15% of the population) were uninsured and 60% of residents had coverage from private insurers. 55% of those covered by private insurers received it through their employer and 5% paid for it directly. Federal programs covered 24% of Americans; 13% under Medicare and10% under Medicaid. (Squires, 2010)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, most commonly known by its initials HIPAA, was enacted by Congress then signed by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996. This act was put into place in order to regulate the privacy of patient health information, and as an effort to lower the cost of health care, shape the many pieces of our complicated healthcare system. This act also protects individuals from losing their health insurance if they lose their employment or choose to switch employers. . Before HIPAA there was no standard or consistency for the enforcement of the privacy for patients and the rules and regulations varied by state and organizations. HIPAA virtually affects everybody within the healthcare field including but not limited to patients, providers, payers and intermediaries. Although there are many parts of the HIPAA act, for the purposes of this paper we are going to focus on the two main sections and the four objectives of HIPAA, a which are to improve the portability (the capability of transferring from one employee to another) of health insurance, combat fraud, abuse, and waste in health insurance, to promote the expanded use of medical savings accounts, and to simplify the administration of health insurance.
This assignment looks at the importance of safeguarding and how practitioners and agencies should be involved to help prevent any risks when dealing with a vulnerable adult. The case study is about a 22 year old vulnerable adult called Andrew who has been diagnosed with autism. According to (Autism.org.uk, 2017) Autism is a complex developmental disability that usually affects children during early childhood. It is a condition that can affect communication, behavior, social interactions and how people experience and interact in the general word around them.
In 2009, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) and former ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR witnessed this historical moment. American nurses celebrate with satisfaction, because their hard work paid off, enacting historical health care reform legislation that benefits not only nurses but their patient as well. Despite that the health care reform is now a reality, is important to keep working in order to make sure that the reform is implemented effectively (Routson, 2010).The ANA has been in favor of a health care reform that would provide high quality medical services for all. ANA believe that with Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act, millions of American will be protected against the lost or denied health insurance coverage and improved access to primary and preventive care. (ANA, 2011)
With more health care records and information being stored electronically, there is more access to personal information that can be stolen and used for fraud purposes. In order to get a handle on this issue private citizens need to be further educated on what health care fraud is and how to prevent as well as report it. Health care professional are on the front lines of health care fraud and need to become proactive in being able to spot and report suspicious activity. With these actions taking place there can be a reduction in the amount of health care related fraud every
Physically stolen information can result from records being recovered after they were improperly disposed of or the medical chart being taken when the backs of the medical staff are turned. These are both pretty scary scenarios to consider as the outcome has numerous negative effects upon the patients life. Unauthorized disclosure of patient information is the second most common form of violation, with a total of 20%. This means the health care staff is letting the patient’s information be seen and used, either knowingly or unknowingly, by somebody other than the professionals and the patient themselves. These numbers are both astronomical as well as preventable. The US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights states that “between April 2003 and January 2013 they received 91,000 complaints of HIPAA violations, in which 22,000 led to enforcement actions of varying kinds (from settlements to fines) and 521 led to referrals to the US Dept of Justice (criminal actions).” Prosecution rates may continue to rise, however, it is now our responsibility, as medical staff, to prevent the information from being release in the first place as well as to keep our patients information
HIPAA provides the first federal protection for the privacy of medical records (Burke & Weill, 2005). HIPPA encourages the use of electronic medical records and the sharing of medical records between healthcare providers, because it can aid in saving lives. HIPAA requires that patients have some knowledge of the use of their medical records and must be notified in writing of their providers' privacy policies. HIPAA has technical requirements that a healthcare provider, insurer, or service provider, unless exempt under state law, must provide. An organization must conduct a self-evaluation to learn what threats its records face, and develop techniques needed to protect the information (HIPAA, 1996).
While the HIPAA regulations call for the medical industry to reexamine how it protects patient information, the standards put in place by HIPAA do not provide ...
According to the report provided by the consultant, the employees at this facility were not taking precautions in safeguarding the patient’s health information. Therefore, the employees at this facility were in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). It is important for employees to understand the form of technology being used and the precautions they must take to safeguard patient information.
5. The thing that you will need to implement is the disabling of all unnecessary ports and services on the POS devices.
There are obvious benefits to the technology such as quick access to patient information, efficient and faster billing, and lower storage costs. In addition, there are huge advantages to linking laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy information to the larger EHR. According to Murphy (2011), linking this data is very patient-centric as it lessens the likelihood of repeating tests, thus better care decisions happen when current data is available. However, there are cons to the technology that are hampering its full acceptance. In the digital age, the public is becoming aware of how pervasive computers are to our everyday lives. Computers run our cars; manage our financial matters, and numerous other daily functions. In addition, computers and electronic information allow medical devices to function and more often than not, track our medical footprints. When the shift to EHR was nearly mandated, the one consideration not taken into account is the public’s mistrust of how the healthcare industry uses this information. Certainly, those in the healthcare industry want to keep their patients healthy, heal them when illness develops, and develop better ways of treating disease; however, the medical industry, like all businesses, are motivated by profit. According to Blankenhorn (2010), medical records, from pharmacy records
Healthcare services have been on the rise for over 10 years now. According to a 2012 consumer alert, the industry provided $2.26 trillion in payments for more than four billion health insurance benefit claims in the year 2011(Fraud in Health Care). The bulk of the claims and the mainstream of fraud and abuse stem from the Medicare system professionals, who are knowledgeable about the process and persuade new clients into handing over their pertinent information in hopes of deception and illegitimate claims. Multiple and double billing, fraudulent prescriptions, are some of the major flaws in this organization that has made the healthcare services industry curdle. (AGHAEGBUNA, 2011) This is a non-violet crime and is often committed by very educated people including business people, hospital, doctors, and administrators.
Cisco Systems, Inc. is a leader in networking for the internet, they develop hardware, software, and services to help create internet solutions that make internet networks possible. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. They are a worldwide company with headquarters in: San Jose, California, Amsterdam Netherlands, and Singapore. Currently, they employ approximately 74,000 people throughout the world. Cisco operates on a set of values which include: change the world, intensely focus on customers, make innovation happen, win together, respect and care for each other, and always do the right thing. They show these values through global involvement in education, community, and philanthropic efforts. (Cisco, 2004)
In recent years, electronic health records have become a forefront to quality health care. However, prior to this time medical records were stored in paper charts. Furthermore, even with electronic health records, much patient information is still printed and transmitted along the continuum of care. This continues to allow vulnerability in access to protected patient information and potential for data breaches. Breaches can occur due to human error, improper disposal, hacking of information, and numerous other reasons. One breach occurred due to both human error and improper disposal in a regional hospital located in Pennsylvania.
The Health and Human Services (HHS) settled a case with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (BCBST) for $1.5 million for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and security rules. There are security issues with BCBST in regard to confidentiality, integrity, availability, and privacy. There are also security requirement by HIPAA which could have prevent the security issue if it has been enforced. There are correction actions taken by BCBST which were efficient and some may have not been adequate. There are HIPAA security requirements and safeguards organization need to implement to mitigate the security risk in terms of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.