I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Legal Aspects of Healthcare

2. Course Prefix & Number:
HINS 2144

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 2

Lecture Hours: 2

4. Course Description:

This course is designed to breakdown the complexity of healthcare law and legal issues. The course will provide individuals with the fundamentals of laws, regulations, and ethics surrounding the delivery of healthcare and the management and protection of health information.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

No placement tests required

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

Anoka Technical College, ADSC 1244 Legal & Ethical Aspects in Healthcare, 2 credits
Rochester Community & Technical College, HIMC 1800 Legal Aspects of Health Information, 3 credits

2. Transfer - regional institutions with which this course has a written articulation agreement:

College of St. Scholastica, Articulation agreement signed Summer 2020 (with HINS 1120 transfers to HIM 3132)

MSU - Moorhead, Articulation agreement signed Spring 2019 (MSU-M Electives)

III. Course Purpose

1. Program-Applicable Courses – This course is required for the following program(s):

Healthcare Administrative Specialist, AAS
Healthcare Accounting, AAS

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Demonstrate written communication skills	List the responsibilities and steps required by the state for reporting vital statistics and communicable diseases.
Analyze and follow a sequence of operations	Describe the rights and obligations of the healthcare worker in regard to access and disclosure of health information.
Apply ethical principles in decision-making	Explain resolutions in cases where laws conflict with one another.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Describe the role of professional codes of ethics in protecting health information;
• Describe the role of non-legal accrediting bodies and their authority relative to the legal system (The Joint Commission);
• Demonstrate an understanding of concerns associated with health information technology contracts;
• Define the consent rights and limitations of competent adults and incompetent adults;
• Describe the legal challenges associated with personal health records; and
• List the administrative requirements and penalties for noncompliance imposed by HIPAA Privacy Rule.

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Fundamentals of law for health informatics and information management
• Health information and health records
• Privacy, confidentiality, and security
• Custodian/steward of health records
• Relationship of law and ethics
• American Medical Association
• American Health Information Management Association
• American Medical Informatics Association
2. Legal system in the United States
• Role of law in the U.S. healthcare system
• Public vs. private law
• Conflicts of laws
• Government organization
• Requirements of non-legal entities such as accrediting bodies
3. Civil procedure
• Parties to a lawsuit
• Pretrial
• Trial
• Post-trial
4. Evidence
• Health information as evidence
• Discoverability
• Electronic discover (e-Discovery)
• Subpoena
• Producing records as kept in the usual course of business
• Retention and destruction of health information
• Admissibility
• Physician-patient privilege
• Waiver of privilege
• Privilege between patients and other providers
• Apology statutes
• Protection of related medical documentation
• Incident reports
• Peer review records
5. Tort law
• Types of torts
• Cause of action for improper disclosure of health information
• Immunity from liability
• Statutes of limitations
• Criminal liability in health care
• Medical malpractice issues
6. Corporations, contracts, and antitrust legal issues
• Healthcare corporations
• For-profit and not-for-profit corporations
• Responsibilities of the governing board
• General principles of contracts
• General principles of antitrust laws
• Contract and antitrust issues associated with the medical staff
7. Consent to treatment
• Types of consent
• Express consent
• Implied consent
• Informed consent
• Requirements
• Exception to informed consent
• Informed consent and HIPAA
• Advance directives
• Durable power of attorney for health care decisions
• Living wills
• Do not resuscitate orders
• Patient self-determination act
• Uniform anatomical gift act
• Parties to consent
• Competent adults
• Incompetent adults
• Minors
• Challenges to consent
• Types of consent forms
8. The legal health record: maintenance, content, documentation and disposition
• Purposes of the health record
• Health record maintenance, content, and documentation requirements
• Maintaining a legally defensible health record
• Authentication
• Accuracy
• Authorship
• Abbreviations
• Legibility
• Changes to the health record
• Timeliness and completeness
• Printing
• Personal health records
• Health record identification, retention, and disposition
• Health record identification
• Health record retention
• Health record disposition
9. HIPAA privacy rules
• Source of law
• Scope of law
• Purpose and goals of HIPAA privacy
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• History and comparison with existing laws
• Applicability
• Requirement
• Key privacy rule documents
• Re-disclosure
• Minimum necessary requirements
• Noncompliance
• Individual rights
• Breach notification
• Marketing
• Fundraising
• Research
• Preemption
• Administrative requirements
• Enforcement and penalties for non-compliance
• Privacy advocacy
10. HIPAA security rules
• Purpose of the HIPPA security rule
• Scope of security rule
• Ensuring security compliance
• Security rule safeguards and requirements
• Administrative safeguards
• Physical safeguards
• Technical safeguards
• Organizational requirements
• Policies, procedures, and documentation
• Security officer designation
• Enforcement and penalties for non-compliance
11. Security threats and controls
• Internal and external security threats
• Human threats
• Natural and environmental threats
• Medical identity theft
• Implications of medical identity theft
• Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act and the Red Flag Rule
• Prevention, detection, and mitigation of medical identity theft
• System controls
• Contingency planning or disaster recovery planning
12. Access, use, and discloser/release of health information
• Ownership and control of the health record and health information
• Access to patient health information
• Highly sensitive health information
• Behavioral (mental) health information
• Substance abuse records
• HIV/AIDS, STDs, and other communicable disease information
• Genetic information
• Adoption information
• Special access, request, and disclosure situations
• Disclosure of active records of currently hospitalized or ambulatory patients
• Deceased patients
• Disclosure of information for autopsy
• Open records, public records, or freedom of information laws
• Employee health or occupational safety and health records
• Laboratory test results
• Payment requests from insurance companies and government agencies
• Medical emergencies
• Public figures or celebrities
• Social Security Administration and state disability determination services
• Health information handlers: payment integrity review contractors
• Health information exchange
• Managing the release of information process
• Definition of LHR and DRS
• Types of requests for access, use, and disclosure/release of PHI
• Accounting of disclosures and tracking releases
• Right to request restrictions
• Refusal to disclose information
13. Required reporting and mandatory disclosure laws
• Disclosure without patient authorization or agreement for public health
• Notice of privacy practices
• Accounting disclosures
• Common state reporting requirements
• Abuse and neglect of children, elderly, and disabled
• Vital records
• Communicable diseases
• Induced termination of pregnancy (abortion)
• Birth defects
• Reportable deaths
• Unusual events and other state reporting requirements
• Workers' compensation for occupational illness, injury, and death
• National reporting requirements
• Reporting of serious occurrences or death related to restraint or seclusions
• National reporting of quality measures
• National practitioner data banks
• Medical device reporting
• Reporting of occurrences with electronic health record systems
• Federal registry on implantable cardiac defibrillators
• Organ procurement reporting
• Occupational fatalities, injuries, and illnesses
• Registries
• Cancer registries
• Trauma registries
• Immunization registries
• Birth defects registries
• Diabetes registries
• Implant registries
• Transplant registries
• Disclosure to public health authorities not required by law