1) What is your topic and how is it related to healthcare policy analysis and decision making? 2) What have been the main challenges to your research process so far? How did you address solve those obstacles? Include APA6 references for a few of your peer reviewed journals. Part 2-Thinking about your leadership skills, what do you have to contribute to healthcare policy analysis related to chapter 14?

The topic is on Protected Health Information (PHI), privacy section of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): discussing the facts and analyzing from the point of view of the provider, how it affects decisions made for and with the patients. There have been some articles on PHI since 1996 country-wide, but the common themes in said articles are the 1. The big paradigm shift it brought to how patients’ records are handled, used and accessed: reflects varying speed of implementation and integration in the different states; for example stake holder engagement (McLaughlin & McLaughlin, 2015). 2. Providers sometimes being caught in the middle between either disclosing to family/friend of patient, so as to obtain information needed for treatment OR following HIPAA rules to the T, but to the detriment of their patient’s care (Andrews, 2016). 3. Involuntary breach of PHI through theft, loss or security incursion is more common place in recent times than previously thought (McLaughlin & McLaughlin, 2015). 4. Considerable number of the write-ups available online are by Department of Health and Human Services. 5. Where to draw the line for researchers between PHI and Research-related Health Information (RHI) (“What is and is not Protected Health Information”, n.d.). 6. Patient’s accounts reflect a significant amount ignorance of the actual protection afforded under HIPAA and certain misconceptions on what to expect from their care providers etcetera. Challenges are being addresses by searching specifically for articles, accounts of experiences and blogs by hospitals, healthcare professionals, insurance companies and such, to further shed light on the collective translation of PHI on the provider’s side of the divide.

Reference 

Andrews, M. (2016, May 31st). Parents May Be Refused Details Of Adult Children's Medical Care. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/31/479751997/parents-may-be-refused-details-of-adult-childrens-medical-care

McLaughlin, C.P. & McLaughlin, C.D. (2015). Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Jones and Bartlett. 2nd ed. Pp 371

What is and is not Protected Health Information (PHI) in Research Settings (n.d.) U.C. HIPAA Implementation Taskforce. Retrieved from https://cphs.berkeley.edu/hipaa/WhatIsandIsNotPHI.pdf

Bibliography 

Bowers, D. (2001). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: is it really all that bad? Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305898/

Brown, M. (2015, January 10th). What is Protected Health Information? Retrieved from https://www.truevault.com/blog/protected-health-information.html

Gresham, G. & Orlowski, A. (2013). Coming Of Age In The Healthcare System: Confidentiality, Capacity And Consent. University Of California Television. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/issues/law-and-medical-privacy

McLaughlin, C.P.& McLaughlin, C.D. (2015). Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Jones and Bartlett. 2nd ed. 

The Law And Medical Privacy (n.d.) Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsvxzZiQwEs

The HIPAA Privacy Rule (2015). Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/index.html

US Code 42 (n.d.), Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Publication. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1320d-6

What is and is not Protected Health Information (PHI) in Research Settings (n.d.) U.C. HIPAA Implementation Taskforce. Retrieved from https://cphs.berkeley.edu/hipaa/WhatIsandIsNotPHI.pdf