ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER

Administrative Ethics Paper Angela Gentile HCS/335 June 4, 2012 Claudia Unrein

ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER Administrative Ethics Paper

When developing and rewards compensation plan one must produce a policy that executes the plan successfully. The (EEO) laws allows the human resources professionals to hire the high qualified staff by selecting the right candidates for interviews, and giving the best job offers without discriminating against any candidates. Affirmative Action prevents discrimination among race, creed, religion, and sex. Affirmative action is an effort to develop a systematic approach to eliminate the current and lingering effects of prior discrimination. It is a conscious effort to achieve equal employment opportunity for all race sex groups in a workforce (p. 1). According to the United States Department of Labor (2009), The Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) prohibits specific types of job discrimination in certain workplaces. EEOC is an independent federal agency that promotes equal opportunity in employment through administrative and judicial enforcement of the federal civil rights laws and through education and technical assistance. EEOC protects applicants and employees of many private employers, state and local governments, educational institutions, employment agencies, and labor organizations (p.2) According to HR Guide, (2009) Disparate Treatment is Title VII prohibits employers from treating applicants or employees differently because of their membership in a protected class. The vital issue is whether the employer's actions are motivated by discriminatory intent, which may be proved by either direct or conditional evidence (p.1). According to Jrank (2009), Disparate is a theory of liability that prohibits an employer from using a facially neutral employment practice that has an unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class. A facially neutral employment practice does not appear to be discriminatory on its face; rather is discriminatory in its application or effect (p. 1). Some examples of practices that may be subject to a disparate impact dispute include written tests, height and weight requirements, educational requirements, and onesided measures, such as interviews (HR Guide, 1999). According to Labor notes (2009), "Some examples of disparate treatment: Suspending worker A for speeding while giving no punishment to worker B.

ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER Firing worker A for absenteeism while allowing other substance-abusing employees to enter treatment programs

Firing worker A for fighting while allowing worker B to enter a last-chance agreement. Firing worker A after a single warning, while giving worker B two warnings before firing (p. 2). The Harrison Corporation staff and HR professionals should be knowledgeable on all the administrative issues that are associated with the staffing and rewards plan. With the knowledge on the current and future administrative issues, this can help to have a successful compensation plan and a growing company. Now more than ever is the time to care about the privacy of our medical information. Intimate details shared between Doctors and patients are either stored in file cabinets or data files. The risk of a patient privacy rights being mishandled are high. This is when HIPAA, which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act comes into effect. HIPAA was passed by Congress in 1996 and was used to set a national standard for electronic transfers of health data. At the same time, Congress saw the concerns people had about privacy and security of personal health data. Its a scary thought to think that our private information can be looked at with a click of a button and rules needed to be enforced. The task of writing these rules on privacy was given to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. After many modifications, DHHS issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule. This law deals with privacy, information standards, data integrity, confidentiality, and data security. Even though this law was passed, it took five years before the privacy rule became effective on April 14, 2001. The security and privacy standards have had a major impact on the collection and distribution of information and will continue in the years to come. One of the purposes is to protect individuals from losing their health insurance when leaving and changing jobs and by providing portability. This will also increase the governments authority over fraud and abuse although the data is transferred from one facility to another. In addition, patients benefited from the ongoing health care managements promise to provide high quality of care. This is important because there are many risks of security breaches. Hospital staff is being tempted to sell private information and HIPAA helps set standards

ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS PAPER and the facilities enforce the consequences of breaking the rules. Another advantage for patients is the privilege of accessing their own medical records. Prior to HIPAA, federal

law did not guarantee and only about half the states were given the option to see and copy their own medical records. Because HIPAA is a national law, everyone is given the right to see, copy, and request to demand his or her own medical records. There are fees that can be charged for copies, but HIPAA sets limits on the fees. As well as accessing his or her own records, every medical facility must offer a privacy practices notice that entitles a patient to know how his or her medical information is used and disclosed. It basically explains how to exercise his or her right under the rule and explain how to file a complaint with his or her health care provider and with the HHS office. It is important to know how his or her information will be used. HIPAA also requires an accounting of disclosures. This allows a patient to find who has accessed his or her health records for the prior six years. Although there are a few stipulations to the accounting requirement. For example, accounting is not required when records are disclosed to many individuals who see the records for treatment, payment, and health care purposes. As much as HIPAA has helped protect patients privacy rights, consumer and patient advocates are critical of its weaknesses. Besides their complexity and financial impact on health care providers, the HIPAA regulations may have had an adverse effect on patient care. An article in the Washington Post August 18, 2003, "Patient Privacy Rules Bring Wide Confusion: New Directives Often Misunderstood" describes "frequent misunderstandings" of the rules, resulting in "frustration, uncertainty and anxiety in doctors' offices, clinics, hospitals and even pharmacies across the country." For example, an emergency room physician in Phoenix said, "It's more than just health care providers being unable to get the information they need to care for patients...it's patients not being able to get information, family members not being able to get information. It's across the board." HIPAA may be trying hard to protect privacy, there are some loops in the system that should be looked. Also clinical research has been affected by HIPAA. In 2003, a health care provider may only use or disclose protected health information for treatment, payment, and health care operations purposes. For all other purposes, including clinical research, the healthcare provider must obtain a written authorization from the individual.

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Although clinical research organizations used to obtain consents to participate in research studies that were acceptable. The privacy rule creates a distinct set of requirements for any authorization to be valid. Six core components and three required statements and must meet two other requirements. The effect on research is not known yet but researchers have had a setback, and they will have to work on protocols. This will help them to continue to have access to critical patient data. Nevertheless, HIPAA has had a big impact on protecting patients privacy rights. Nowadays it is so easy to steal peoples identity and invade individuals privacy. As health professionals it is important to go above and beyond to enforce HIPAA.

References HR Guide. (1999). EEO: Disparate Treatment. Retrieved on November 14, 2010

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from, http://www.hr-guide.com/data/G701.htm Jrank. (2009). Disparate Impact. Retrieved on November 14, 2010 from, http://law.jrank.org/pages/6188/Disparate-Impact.html Labor notes. (2009). Proving Disparate Treatment. Retrieved on November 15, 2010 from, http://labornotes.org/node/2523 State of South Carolina. (2009). Affirmative Action . Retrieved on November 14, 2010 from, http://www.state.sc.us/schac/affirmative_action.htm United States Department of Labor. (2009). Equal Employment Opportunity. Retrieved on November 15, 2010 from, http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/discrimination/index.htm The National Academies Press. (2010). Effect of HIPAA Privacy Rule on Health Research. Retrieved on November 14, 2010 from, http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12458&page=199 ACE. Impact of the HIPAA Privacy Rule on Academic Research. Retrieved on November 14, 2010 from, http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID =10385&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm