Privacy and Security

Week 5 – Discussion 1

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses.

The HIPAA privacy and security rules provide federal protection for individually identifiable health information. Consider a physician practice that is transitioning from being paper based to electronic medical records. The receptionist area contains both hanging folders and the desktop computer on which the practice management system runs. During the transition, a patient’s health information (valued asset) will exist in two states: on paper in a hanging folder and in an electronic record on a computer. Identify and evaluate the risks for each state in terms of: Threats Vulnerabilities Probability of a breach (low, medium, or high). In your answer include a discussion of authentication, integrity, and accountability.

Guided response: Your initial post should be a minimum of 200-250 words. Utilize a minimum of two scholarly sources, excluding the textbook. Sources should be cited in APA format, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. You must respond to at least two of your classmate’s posts by Day 7. Your three required posts must be on three different days of the week. After reading other initial posts, what are some other actions that would resolve privacy and security issues during the transition from paper to electronic health records.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your discussion.