U07d2 Laws Balancing Access and Protection Essay

U07d2 Laws Balancing Access and Protection - Essay Example The organizations now aim at having paper free offices and all the doctors now use the electronic medium to communicate rather than in paper. However, similar to the use of paper, this method of record keeping also has its own merits and demerits. In today’s world, everyone is very concerned not only about themselves but also about the environment around them, hence the paper less offices and reducing carbon footprints. However one important thing to note is that the use of computers for keeping records can be quite a threat to security for the personal information of millions and millions of people (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2010). In order to ensure that the electronic data is in place and is standardized and hack free, there have been a number of changes including the shift from the traditional viewpoints to newer auditing methods. Similar to the many laws that have been developed over the years, the Privacy Rule also works on the need for independence and personal space in terms of the collection and distribution of healthcare information. Apart from the difficulty of the medical records, the health care organizations are also faced with an issue to upkeep the confidentiality of the communication both in terms of verbal as well as written (Adler, 2008). As the data protection act prohibits the leak of any personal information, similarly, all medical information should also be kept very confidential and should only be shared with consent of the patient. The chapter brings out the most important point of focus, i.e. that the medical records, irrespective of whether they have been tampered or not for any profits, any fabrication or falsifying of data can lead to both criminal as well as civil liability (Beaver & Herold, 2003). No information can be leaked out, modified, or destroyed as this can lead to a criminal charge against the healthcare personnel. The basic idea of the