Legal Issues - Medical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal Issues - Medical - Essay Example A healthcare provider is considered a covered entity. The health care providers shall include the following only: doctors, clinics, psychologists, dentists, chiropractors, nursing homes, and families† (HHS.gov). Thus, in this given problem, Doctor Williams is considered to be included in the list of covered entity, due to the fact that he is a doctor of medicine who disclosed the medical report of his former patient. In the case at bar, it is clear that Dr. Williams committed a medical practice during the abortion services done to one of his patients, Joan. For fear of being sued for medical malpractice, he asked his friend’s advice by showing the medical records of his patient, who told him to talk to a medical malpractice insurer to help him overcome this problem. The act of divulging a patient’s medical record is contrary of the provisions of the HIPAA which provides: â€Å"The Privacy Rule protects all  "individually identifiable health information"  held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. Therefore, undoubtedly, it can be concluded that Dr. Williams committed a violation of the HIPAA. Here, there was no showing that he requested for permission from his patient to allow him to disclose the PHI. Instead, he used the information as a defense to a potential suit for medical malpractice. By giving out the information to the medical insurance carrier to, he can save himself from help him from any criminal liability for the error committed against patient for the mistake he committed. Since the doctor has identifiable health information, he may face a â€Å"criminal penalty of up to $50,000 and up to one-year imprisonment.   The criminal penalties increase to $100,000 and up to five years imprisonment if the wrongful conduct involves false pretenses, and to $250,000 and up to 10 years imprisonment if the