Discussion Thread Current Events in Healthcare Ethicsfinjedited
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Discussion Thread: Current Events in Healthcare Ethics
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Discussion Thread: Current Events in Healthcare Ethics
As Doctors Reel from Cyberattack, AMA Ponders Actions Against UnitedHealth: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2024/06/03/as-doctors-reel-from-cyberattack-ama-
ponders-actions-against-unitedhealth/
Situation and Parties Involved
In early 2024, one of the biggest healthcare technology companies, Change Healthcare,
suffered a massive cyberattack. Private information from numerous patient records—potentially
including PHI and PII—had been compromised. As a payer company relying heavily on the
broad application of Change Healthcare's services, UnitedHealth Group was greatly affected
(Japsen, 2024). The impact of the breach was felt by patients and hundreds of other healthcare
providers who depended solely on the services of Change Healthcare to file and process the
claims and payments of medical bills submitted. The fallouts were deep-rooted, with sensitive
patient data constantly at risk of security breaches and misuse, reflecting the vulnerabilities in
healthcare data management systems (Nowrozy, 2024).
Ethical Standards and Violations
The cyberattack that hit Change Healthcare in early 2024 breached several of its ethical
standards, mainly dealing with the privacy of patients and the security of data as governed by the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This is an absolute violation of
the patient's right to confidentiality, which specifies that only relevant staff members are allowed
access to a patient's records (Nowrozy, 2024). What this did was breach the trust that patients put
in healthcare providers to protect their data, compromising PHI and PII. Additionally, the breach
highlighted severe inadequacies in the data security controls necessary to safeguard sensitive
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data. The fact that it was not prevented points to the systemic weaknesses of data protection
protocols instituted by Change Healthcare and compelled the need for sturdy cybersecurity
measures (Japsen, 2024). To neglect such a security measure proves not only neglectful of legal
duties but also an ethical concern about breaching patients' privacy and security. With large
amounts of sensitive information maintained by healthcare entities, they must practice stringent
data protection standards for guarding unauthorized access and protecting patients from
compromised trust and safety risks.
Response to the Breach
If there is a breach within my facility, the response would consist of some critical actions.
One would be an immediate notification to all persons whose information was breached,
containing the potential impact and mitigation processes that are being done. This would involve
providing support for free credit monitoring and at least two years of identity theft protection
(Nowrozy, 2024). Next, I would run a deep review of the implemented security measures and set
more robust security protocols so the breach would not occur again. I would work closely with
relevant cybersecurity professionals to ensure the best possible standards and data protection. All
the requirements of a HIPAA breach notification must be adequately communicated and
transparent to the patients, healthcare providers, and regulatory bodies (Japsen, 2024). In
emphasizing this comprehensive communication, examples of ethical leadership would be
demonstrated through taking full ownership of the breach with all the response and recovery
efforts. The nursing leader would seek to engage all the facility's leadership team members and
implement a reassessment of ethical practices and policies in patient data security to prevent
recurrence.
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References
Japsen, B. (2024, June 3). As Doctors Reel From Cyberattack, AMA Ponders Actions Against UnitedHealth
. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2024/06/03/as-doctors-
reel-from-cyberattack-ama-ponders-actions-against-unitedhealth/
Nowrozy, R. (2024). A Security and Privacy Compliant Data Sharing Solution For Healthcare Data Ecosystems
. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/48047/1/NOWROZY_Raza-
Thesis_nosignature.pdf