Custom «Medical Office Procedures » Essay Paper Sample

Protection health information refers to the rules that have been set to govern the health of individual people that are identifiable in nature. It refers to the data that has been linked to an individual person and is identifiable. Normally, before an individual gets treated by a medical specialist, it is the concerns of the patient to relay assorted information that will guide the specialist in offering the right prescription. The individual will therefore be identified by this kind of information. It excludes the individual health information that is educational in nature, which covers the rights of the family and the acts of privacy. Moreover, it is known to exclude the records of employment of the individual (Kulakowski & Chronister, 2006).

There are several federal laws that govern protected health information. They come with elements that must be met for them to be operational to an individual. One of the laws is HIPPA. This refers to the health indemnity portability and liability act. It is a law that looks after the privacy of the information that regards an individual. It makes sure that the information is well protected against unnecessary leakages that may occur. Also, it is concerned with the confidentiality that goes hand in hand with the sensitive medical information. It is normally ethical to have any information regarding a patient be protected. This is the act of this law. This will give the person assurance that his or her information is kept under check and thus cannot leak to any unnecessary source. This law is well known to affect each and every individual in the medical practice. They are the guidelines that protect the interests of the patients with regards to their medical information that go together with treatment that is offered (Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information, 2009).

There are a number of cases of improper privacy disclosures. They include the following: when a physician transmits health information in the form of electronic gadgets for billing. This can also happen when transferring funds that are supposed to be paid. In this case, the information will leak to the unnecessary receivers. This involves entering of information in electronic transmitters without considering the HIPAA conditions. The second is that of disclosing the information to patients and anyone who is not authorized. This mainly involves the transfer of information to personalities who are not authorized to be in possession of the information. The third is that of disclosure of the medical information to the quality assurance group, the risk management and the committee that reviews on the medical ethics. This is one of the illegal acts. It involves letting these sets of people be in possession of the information without the assurance of the necessary authorities (Kulakowski & Chronister, 2006).

There are a number of challenges that are encountered in the maintenance of strict confidentiality in a medical office setting. These challenges are mainly due to the daily interactions that exist between all the medical personnel in the hospital. It is challenging to have part of the medical personnel fail to know the information. They are always working as a group and hence cannot be separated. Moreover, at the family level, it is normally hard to let the information not get to the family members.

In conclusion, every human establishment has rules and regulations that act to control the flow of information from one setting to another. These laws also oversee the daily interactions that exist among the workers of the setting. In a medical office, there are medical precautions that have to be adhered to by the medical personnel and the patients. Parts of these rules are those that govern the sharing of the patient's information among the people.