Medical informatics and administrative applications

Since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) were passed, electronic health systems have emerged as new forms of storing medical records. HIPAA emphasize privacy and adherence to security requirements aimed at enhancing accountability and protection of patients’ rights. The volatile healthcare environment created by HIPAA fostered the growth of Electronic health records (EHRs). The emergence of EHRs is believed to change the current healthcare systems by enhancing access to healthcare and improving quality of care. Electronic health records refer to an electronic version where medical data is stored electronically in digital form. Enactment of the HIPAA was designed to include incentives and penalties for healthcare providers depending on the kind of EHR system used by the provider. Since then, providers using EHRs to store or process medical records were given approximately $44, 000 per Medicare-covered patient (Adler-Milstein et al.

Conversely, providers who failed to install electronic health records were given deceased Medicare and Medicaid incentives for treating insured patients. To further incentivize on the use of health records, health information technology for economic and clinical health act (HITECH) was signed into law and fostered the adoption of healthcare IT technology (Kelley, 2014). In contemporary health facilities, patients’ records are stored in the providers’ systems and confidentially treated as an integral component of the patients’ EHR. Due to increased reliance on EHRs, patients’ access to healthcare services is increasing rapidly. According to Adler-Milstein et al. (2015), changes in HIPAA regulations and the provision of financial incentives to health facilities have significantly fostered patients’ access. HIPAA regulations emphasized on electronic storage of patients’ records, and patients should be granted access to their health records.

Since most health facilities have transited from paper records to electronic health records, patients’ access to medical records is currently high. Patients’ records contain everything needed by hackers to execute identity theft (Hsiao, Hing and Ashman, 2014). Also, most medical practices are less concerned with the security of medical records because of the assumption that hackers cannot attack them. Thus, future developments will have to focus on security measures to develop secure systems to enhance the privacy and security of medical records. Once medical records leak to unauthorized parties, patients lose trust with the health facilities and care providers. The increase in security issues presents a worrying trend about the safety of medical records and the confidentiality and security of patient’s health records.