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NSG 421 Week 3 Assignment
Nursing Informatics (NSG 421)
Herzing University
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Introduction The use of telehealth in the healthcare industry has rapidly advanced over the last few years. It has an impact on the healthcare system today. Telehealth brings patients and providers great benefits, but they are hindered by barriers such as ethical, legal, and privacy issues. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical, legal, security, and privacy issues as well as the challenges that are seen in protecting patient privacy regarding health care information. Ethical and Legal Issues Major concerns such as ethical and legal issues are identified when implementing telehealth. Telehealth fraud was investigated and prosecuted recently. When telehealth is used appropriately and lawfully, it offers efficient care services and improves patient outcomes. However, telehealth services were abused by bad attempts and led to serious health care fraud. According to the United States Department of Justice, over $6 billion false and fraudulent claims were submitted in 2020, and $4 billion were related to telemedicine (U Department of Justice, 2020). According to Maheu, fraud activities include billing for medical services that were not necessary, or were not provided, billing for phantom patients, and billing at a higher rate than the normal reimbursement for telemedicine appointments (Maheu, 2020). Ethical matters get involved when health care providers are asked to order medical equipment when they are not necessary. In addition, they are asked to prescribe pain medication, put diagnostic testing without interacting with patients or with a short telephonic discussion with
patients they never talked to (U Department of Justice, 2020). It led to a consequence that medical professionals’ medicare billing privileges were revoked for their actions in telemedicine fraud. The law enforcement and prosecutor will be continuously partnering to protect the public from those unlawfully violating government healthcare programs (U Department of Justice, 2020). Security and privacy Issues Privacy and security issues are important in the healthcare field. When patient privacy is violated, it can harm patients in many ways. According to the article, applications and devices including mobile devices, telemedicine apps, and video transmitters potentially have security risks (University of New Hampshire, n.). Patient confidential information can be violated. It is critical to protect the health information when practicing telehealth. Challenges are seen in protecting patient privacy regarding health care information. One of the challenges is that patients do not always know who has access to their medical information (University of New Hampshire, n.). Providers and healthcare organizations should develop plans so sensitive data can be controlled and monitored. For instance, only staff who participate in the patient's care can have access to their charts. In addition, health care providers should provide a consent form, and explain clearly the risks and benefits of using telemedicine services. Providers can also help to protect patient privacy by knowing the patient's location before starting the telehealth visits. All documents, scans, messages, photos that are sent from patients need to be stored safely. Privacy and security should be a top priority because they help to build trust between healthcare providers and patients. Conclusion
References Maheu, M. (2020). Telemedicine fraud increases. blog.telehealth/telemedicine-fraud/ United States Department of Justice. (n.). National Health Care Fraud and Opioid Takedown. justice/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud University of New Hampshire. (n.). Ethical and Legal Considerations. mypages.unh/ethics-legal-telehealth-braswell-miller-nelson/ethical-and-legal
NSG 421 Week 3 Assignment
Course: Nursing Informatics (NSG 421)
University: Herzing University
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