The document discusses a group project for an HCS/455 class where students were asked to research and summarize a health care policy. The group selected HIPAA as their policy and provided details on its history, purpose, and impact. They noted that HIPAA was established in 1996 to protect patients' private health information and allow continuity of health insurance coverage between jobs. It set national standards for safeguarding sensitive patient information and established penalties for non-compliance. The policy is aimed at and impacts health care consumers, medical staff, insurers, and government agencies who oversee its implementation.

1. HCS/455 v9
Current Policy: Topic Selection
HCS/455 v9
Page 2 of 2
Jenna Marcott, Kara Becker, Siara Brooks
Stephanie Williams, Stephany Galeano
University of Phoenix
HCS/455
Marilyn Ketchum
April 4, 2022

2. Current Policy: Topic Selection
As a team, research and identify a health care policy topic.
Review the following choices or obtain approval from your
faculty for a different topic. Faculty approval must be obtained
at least 3 days in advance of your assignment due date.
· Medicare
· Medicaid
· Health care reform policy [e.g., Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (PPACA)]
· HIPAA
· HITECH
· Or faculty-approved topic

3. Note: As you consider a topic, review the Week Five
assignment requirements to ensure the policy selected can be
used to satisfy those requirements.
Complete the following chart with research your group has
identified for the policy selected. Research information that
needs to be identified for the policy is listed on the left. Your
group will insert research it has found regarding the prompt on
the left. To prevent plagiarism, record all information and
research in your own words.
Policy selected:
Research Prompt
Information your group identified using the policy selected
Siara: Year policy was created
Siara: Identify the various stakeholders involved in the creation
of this policy.
Kara: Select a level of government (federal, state, or local) and
discuss the role and function it had in the process of
implementing the policy.
“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that required the creation of
national standards to protect sensitive patient health
information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent
or knowledge” (CDC, 2018). Because HIPAA was a law
produced through the federal government for all healthcare
entities, it is also backed up by the US Department of Health
and Human Services or HHS. HHS created the HIPAA privacy
rule to strengthen the requirements that HIPAA is in charge of
implementing. These two sectors work hand in hand to enforce
HIPAA regulations throughout healthcare. If state laws hold
contrary to HIPAA regulations, then HHS deems those state
laws will hold if the punishment is greater than federal law.
Kara: Why was the policy created?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 would be the first healthcare policy that nationally

4. protected individuals’ healthcare information such as health
records and personal health information. By HIPAA being
introduced into healthcare, facilities and patients have increased
access to “more control over their health information, set
boundaries on the use and release of health records, establishes
appropriate safeguards that health care providers and others
must achieve to protect the privacy of health information, and it
holds violators accountable, with civil and criminal penalties
that can be imposed if they violate patients’ privacy rights”
(HHS, 2013). Before the implementation of HIPAA, healthcare
entities had no regulation to sharing health care records or
penalties due to not protecting the patients who received
medical care. Not only did HIPAA help to protect patient health
information, it was also enacted in order to allow individuals to
maintain health care coverage when in between jobs.
Jenna: Why is the policy important to health care?
Jenna: What stakeholders are impacted by this policy (e.g.,
health care consumers, medical staff, etc.)?
Stephanie W: In your opinion:
Is the policy effective?
Is it meeting the needs of the population as intended?
How has the effectiveness of the policy been verified?
Stephany G- Discuss the health and societal issues that had an
impact on the development of the health care policy.
The establishment of Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 was the product of a time that did
not have any federal law regulating health care information
privacy. It was a time where technology was emerging, and
many records were receiving attention and privacy except the
very one that contained individuals’ health. According to
Solove, D.J. (2013), “Since the 1970s, Congress had been
passing several privacy statutes that protected driver license
records, cable TV records, school records, and phone records.

5. There was even a federal law regulating the privacy of video
rental records-but no one regulating the privacy of health
records” (para.7). In essence, there was a high demand for a law
that protect patient information and privacy. Due to the
industry’s complexity, the law involves many rules and
regulations to ensure all aspects are always covered.
References
CDC. (2018, September 14). Health Insurance Portability and
accountability act of 1996 (HIPAA). Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved March 29, 2022,
from
https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html#:~:text
=The%20Health%20Insurance%20Portability%20and,the%20pat
ient%27s%20consent%20or%20knowledge.
HHS. (2013, July 26). What does the HIPAA Privacy Rule Do?
Office for Civil Rights. Retrieved March 29,
2022, from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-
individuals/faq/187/what-does-the-hipaa-privacy-rule-

6. do/index.html
Longest, B. (2016). Health policymaking in the United States
(6th ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration
Press
Solove, D.J. (2013). HIPAA Turns 10: Analyzing the Past,
Present, and Future Impact.
https://library.ahima.org/doc?oid=106325#.YkOauOrMLIV
Copyright 2019 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2019 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
For this discussion, select one client-facing role that is used by
human services professionals within the organization you
selected for your final project.
Human Service Selected Agent: Harris County Resources for
Children and Adults; https://resources.harriscountytx.gov/
· Then, create a post that names the role, explains the different
responsibilities of the profession, and provides examples of how
this role relates to the steps of the larger helping process used.