Protected health information. Health, Medicine, Nursing Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Protected Health Information
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Protected Health Information
Maintaining health information privacy can enhance effective communication between health care providers and patients, which is essential in promoting quality care, preventing discrimination, and economic harm. Information in medical records that can be traced to a specific individual, and that was disclosed in the process of providing health care, is called Protected Health Information (PHI). The disclosure should have been made to an entity defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (McWay, 2016). The HIPAA demands that entities defined under the act must implement safeguards to guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of protected health data are maintained at all levels.
Confidentiality and privacy are fundamental human rights in our society, and it is the legal and ethical obligation of health care providers to protect these rights regarding PHI. It is becoming increasingly challenging to uphold the rights to privacy and confidentiality in the current health care environment. Privacy of information relates to the right to control access to personal information. Information security is concerned with the protection tools that prevent unauthorized access to PHI.