The document discusses the need for healthcare providers to access patient information while highlighting the privacy risks involved. It examines the limitations of HIPAA in protecting personal health information and proposes that codes of ethics may offer additional safeguards. A scenario involving a hospital employee and a lawyer's assistant illustrates the complexities of ensuring compliance with ethical standards and regulations in healthcare.

1. HIPAA and Codes of Ethics
The situation
. Healthcare providers need access to patient personal health
information wherever patients are present for care. Systems that
standardize electronic medical records provide such access, but
the risk to privacy that accompanies that access is real, and
breaches often make the news. At the Federal level, the HIPAA
Privacy Rule protects personal health information gathered by
healthcare providers, but most agree that information needs
more protection than HIPAA currently affords. Some believe
added protection may be found in the forming and keeping of
codes of ethics.
A scenario
. Mary works in a hospital health information management
department, and Maureen, her friend, comes one day to pick up
the medical records of a patient who is a client of the lawyer
Maureen works for. Maureen, however, has forgotten to bring
the client’s signed authorization form, though she assures Mary
the form, which she saw the patient sign, is at her office. Since
Maureen’s need for the form is urgent and there isn’t enough
time to return with the form today, Maureen hopes to take the
records and return with the form another day.
Read the iHealthCoalition’s
eHealth Code of Ethics
, the
Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule
, and with the above scenario in mind, consider the following
questions:
In light of what the Code and HIPAA say, how might Mary and
Maureen best resolve the problem?
How might a code of ethics provide personal medical
information more protection than HIPAA?
In the above code, only one of the eleven sections is explicitly
labeled privacy. Do matters covered in other sections play roles
in protecting personal medical information? Explain.

2. In what ways, if any, does HIPAA protect personal medical
information where codes of ethics do not?
Support your answers with examples, clear reasoning, and by
citing the Code of Ethics and HIPAA regulation directly.