Question

Explain the consequences of a hospital having a breach of personal health information. How do you think this effects the hospital? Be specific.

What are personal consequences for people who breach personal health information? Do you think this is a fair punishment?

Answer 1

Ensuring privacy of personal health information can promote more effective communication between physician and patient, which is essential for quality of care, enhanced autonomy, and preventing economic harm, embarrassment, and discrimination.

The effects of a breach of Public Health Information can be devastating to a hospital both financially and to their coveted customer relationships.

The negative impact also manifests itself in losses to consumer trust, confidence and loyality.Should this trust be broken the impact on a healthcare provider’s bottom line could be severe as those who are severely injured by a data breach, such as a breach of Public Health Information ,over 50% of them switched their business to a competitor.

Unlike credit card numbers, healthcare information is nonrecoverable, and potentially lethal in the wrong hands.Personal consequences for people who breach personal health information are:

Personally identifying information like names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth can be used to open up new credit accounts and file fake tax returns.

Health insurance information can be used to purchase drugs or medical equipment, which are then resold illegally, or even to get medical care.

If someone uses your insurance to get access to prescription drugs, you can end up with a flag in the system that could trigger regulators or even law enforcement to track you down.