The Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality Laws Related to Protecting Sensitive Electronic Health Information, Governing the Interdisciplinary Team

Data breaches in the health system worldwide continue to undermine patients' privacy

daily. The US federal government introduced the Health insurance portability and accountability

act (HIPAA) to overcome PHI breaches. Protected health information (PHI) is any health

information in possession of a covered entity or its business associate. In addition, this

information can be transmitted in any form or media (electronic, paper, or oral); and can identify

a patient, for example, a name, phone number, and demographic information Keshta and Odeh

(2021).

HIPAA privacy rule- seeks to limit the use and disclosure of PHI by providing patients

with details of any release of their information, including billing and administrative

purposes Keshta and Odeh (2021). In addition, the privacy rule also gives patients the

right to receive their PHI upon request.

 HIPAA security rule- requires covered entities to use both physical and electronic

safeguards to protect PHI (Moore & Frye, 2019).

HIPAA Confidentiality rule requires covered entities to use unique identifiers for patients.

Analyzing infographics on protecting PHI

According to the infographic below, the total cost of PHI data breaches in the US is $ 12

billion annually. Per this infographic, the leading causes of patient data breaches are

employee action, lost or stolen computing devices, and third-party errors (Moore & Frye,

2019)