Instructions
Please respond to a minimum of 2 peers. In your responses, consider the following questions:
- In what ways do you agree or disagree with the analysis of the law your peer reviewed? Why?
- Does the law or regulation your peer discussed impact your nursing practice? How?
Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references.
MY INITIAL POST (DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS POST)
The problem the Law Addresses
The 21st Century Cures Act is a liberal advancement for medical informatics. It addresses some significant issues regarding electronic health information management (Arvisais-Anhalt et al., 2022). Before this legislation, healthcare facilities suffered from significant interoperability problems that greatly affected the continuity of patients’ treatment and their exchange of information. According to this definition of interoperability, where the user does not need to make added efforts for electronic health information exchange, the Act aims to eradicate historic technological and communication challenges involved in handling healthcare services.
Purpose of the Law
The purpose of the legislation means a lot more than just the objectives connected with providing technological solutions. It offers a broad and clear taxonomy outlining how it seeks to boost the nation’s health status by promoting medical research and development, increasing health technology integration, and explaining privacy regulation, substance abuse, and mental health services. Section 4001 on Health IT Usability and Section 4002(a) on Certification Conditions, the Act lays the basic principles for creating improved, more substantive, meaningful, user-centered, and integrated electronic health systems (HealthIT.Gov, 2019).
Beneficiaries of the Legislation
Nurses are the most beneficiaries of this transformative legislation. The Act grants nursing professionals significant access to comprehensive patient records, reduces administrative burdens, and enables more informed clinical decision-making. Better electronic health record (EHR) systems inherently enhance medical informatics principles that enable information sharing between various healthcare environments (Arvisais-Anhalt et al., 2022). With no information blocking and the development of trustworthy information exchange, nurses can now coordinate care more effectively, access real-time patient information, and focus more on direct patient care rather than navigating complex documentation processes.
Impact on Nursing
The Cures Act benefits various parties, such as patients who gain more transparent access to their health information, healthcare providers who enjoy efficient collaborative work, and researchers who can benefit from an even greater depth of medical data (HealthIT.Gov, 2019). This legislation is integral to advancing healthcare technology and improving the efficiency of communication, ideas, and data flow without compromising data privacy and security.
Reference
Arvisais-Anhalt, S., Lau, M., Lehmann, C. U., Holmgren, A. J., Medford, R. J., Ramirez, C. M., & Chen, C. N. (2022). The 21st Century Cures Act and multiuser electronic health record access: potential pitfalls of information release. Journal of medical Internet research, 24(2), e34085.
HealthIT.Gov. (2019). Health IT Legislation. HealthIT.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/topic/laws-regulation-and-policy/health-it-legislationLinks to an external site.
Jillian (Respond To This Peer’s Post)
Problem HIPAA Is Trying To Solve
In order to ensure uniformity and effectiveness in the delivery of healthcare services, HIPAA addressed the need for national standards in electronic healthcare transactions and identification. “The statute focuses on creating confidentiality systems within and beyond healthcare facilities,” according to an article (Edemekong et al., 2024). Significant disparities existed in the management and security of patient data prior to HIPAA, which resulted in privacy violations, inefficiencies, and difficulties with care transitions.
Purpose of HIPAA
A major objective of the Privacy Rule, according to an article, is to ensure that people’s health information is appropriately safeguarded while permitting the flow of health information required to deliver and promote high-quality healthcare and to safeguard the health and well-being of the general public (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). Except in situations allowed by law, the HIPAA Privacy Rule guarantees that personal health information (PHI) is never shared without the patient’s knowledge or consent. Additionally, because the healthcare industry is diverse, the Rule is made to be both comprehensive and flexible in order to encompass the range of disclosures and uses that must be addressed.
Who Benefits from HIPAA
Since the law guarantees that patients’ private health information is kept safe and used only for authorized purposes, patients stand to gain the most. According to an article, “One of the most important rights is the ability to inspect healthcare data” (Alder, 2023). Patients now have the opportunity to review their medical records for inaccuracies and have them fixed thanks to the Privacy Rule. Additionally, patients were granted the right to a copy of their medical records, enabling them to transfer that information to a new healthcare provider and share it with any individual they choose, including friends, family, or medical research organizations.
How HIPAA Impact Nurses
To protect patient privacy and ensure that PHI is handled appropriately, nurses must be aware of and abide by HIPAA requirements. They also need to be careful to prevent unauthorized disclosures, which includes protecting electronic data and avoiding discussions about patient information in public places. Serious repercussions for noncompliance might include penalties, license suspension, and damage to an institution’s or individual’s reputation. Nurses show their dedication to the ethical handling of patient information by putting in place safe communication procedures, upholding stringent access rules, and quickly reporting any possible breaches. This promotes integrity and trust in healthcare partnerships (Jordan, 2024).
References
Alder, S. (2023, January 27). Editorial: Benefits of HIPAA for Patients. The HIPAA Journal.
Edemekong, P., Annamaraju, P., & Haydel, M. (2024, February 12). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. National Library for Medicine.
Jordan, A. (2024, January 24). A guide to HIPAA compliance for nurses. Brookline College. https://www.brooklinecollege.edu/blog/a-guide-to-hipaa-compliance-for-nurses/#:~:text=Nurses%20are%20bound%20by%20HIPAA,%2C%20payment%2C%20or%20healthcare%20operations.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. U.S. Department of Health And Human Services. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html
Alondra (Respond To This Peer’s Post)
Upon visiting the site provided one is able to notice the amount of crucial information put out which is necessary in order for one to properly understand the purpose of the 21st Century Cures Act. The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee is one which happens to discuss as a whole the roles of the Health Information Technology Policy Committee and the Health Information Technology Standards Committee that were in existence before the date of the enactment of the 21st Century Cures Act. When it comes down to what the law is trying to solve it falls upon the fact that it addresses key challenges in health information, technology, including limited interoperability, information blocking, and lack of patient access to electronic health information. The ones who benefit from the legislation are patients, who happen to gain access to their health records, enabling informed decision-making, and health care providers, who benefit from improved interoperability, which enhances care coordination. The way in which nurses are impacted is due to how the legislation streamlines workflows and provides access to critical patient information in real time, allowing them to deliver more efficient, and personalized care. In addition, nurses play a huge role in advocacy, ensuring compliance with information-sharing practices, and integrating new technologies into care delivery (Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, 2019). The overall perspective of such law which falls under the 21st Century Act is to restore patient care by providing more ways to further handle certain aspects.
References:
Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) | HealthIT.gov. (2019). Healthit.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/hitac/committees/health-information-technology-advisory-committee-hitac
RUBRIC
Writing (All posts)
-Well written and clear
-Well organized – (Use of Bold Font Headings to organize the content of initial and response posts to identify each discussion prompt clearly)
-No grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors (Grammarly is a great resource)
-Posts in this discussion are well written and well organized, demonstrating exemplary scholarly writing. Mechanics (spelling and punctuation) and grammar are excellent.
External Sources and Citations (All posts)
-Appropriate use of in-text citations and references
-Citations are consistent- Draws connections between various sources and real-world applications; citations are consistent with external sources.