Regulatory and Legislative Issues Paper

Many issues in the health care arena are influenced by orders from regulatory agencies, called regulations.   For instance, state boards of nursing develop regulatory rules to enforce standards of practice for nurses.   These regulations dictate how nurses are to practice and are enforced by the law.   A topic within the past few years that has raised questions pertains to the requirement of healthcare facilities to implement an electronic health record within one’s system. Privacy is important to both patients and their healthcare provider; thus the importance of the protection of records. Consequently, the Health and Human Services Department created The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), a component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This new act consists of incentives for health care information technology designed to accelerate the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems among providers in protecting patients’ privacy ("HIPAA," 2009).   The HITECH Act was developed to enhance the scope of privacy and security protections available under HIPAA as well as to increase legal liability for non-compliance and to provide increased enforcement.  
In terms of quality, the new HITECH Act will greatly prevail over the older privacy protection HIPAA law.   Unfortunately, in the past HIPAA was not highly monitored or enforced, hence the development of this new act.   HITECH’s design and strict rules will ensure a higher degree of privacy and improve patient care for all patients nationwide. The EHR promises an array of potential benefits for patients and the United States health care system through improving clinical care and reducing costs.   Under HITECH guidelines, providers will be cited for willful neglect on a case-by-case basis if he or she does not comply.   When a provider displays cavalier behavior toward complying with the rules, these providers are likely to be charged with willful neglect.   To...