HIPAA and Codes of Ethics

The situation. Healthcare providers need access to patient personal health information wherever patients are present for care. Systems that standardize electronic medical records provide such access, but the risk to privacy that accompanies that access is real, and breaches often make the news. At the Federal level, the HIPAA Privacy Rule protects personal health information gathered by healthcare providers, but most agree that information needs more protection than HIPAA currently affords. Some believe added protection may be found in the forming and keeping of codes of ethics.