The Battle of Normandy in 1944 is an example of restriction that must be known. Although thousands of military personnel were involved in planning the invasion, only a small number knew the full scope of the operation; The rest were only informed of the data needed to carry out a small part of the plan. The same goes for Project Trinity, the first test of a nuclear weapon in 1945. Like other security measures, the need to know can be abused by individuals who want to deny others access to the information they possess in order to increase their personal power, prevent unwanted evaluations of their work, avoid embarrassment due to actions or thoughts. Nowhere in HIPAA is it explicitly stated that PHI requires a “need to know” basis. Instead, it is a term that encompasses the necessary minimum standard. The need to know can also be invoked to conceal extrajudicial activities. This can be seen as a necessary benefit or a detrimental abuse of such a policy when viewed from different angles. The discretionary access control mechanisms of some operating systems can be used to enforce necessity. [2] In this case, the owner of a record determines whether another person should have access to it.
The most important thing to know is often applied simultaneously with mandatory access control systems, where the lack of official authorization (e.g., release) of an individual can absolutely prohibit access to information. Indeed, the need for knowledge can be a subjective assessment. Mandatory access control systems can also check access to determine if the need-to-know system has been breached. Believe it or not, a need-to-know foundation is a kind of requirement for healthcare organizations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you are a medical professional, you know that there are certain providers you need to use to make it easier for you. HIPAA allows firms and institutions to work with providers, otherwise the burnout situation would be even worse. The necessary knowledge can have a detrimental effect on employee effectiveness. Even if you do so in good faith, you may not fully know who really needs to know the information, leading to inefficiencies as some people are inevitably deprived of the information they need to fulfill their duty. The speed of calculations with IBM mechanical calculators at Los Alamos increased significantly after calculator operators were informed of the meaning of the numbers:[1] You probably immediately understood which part I`m referring to because it`s identical to the title of this blog post.
I`m talking about the part of this spy movie scene where the main character receives confidential information. This is on a “need to know” basis. In other words, it is not enough to create a base of knowledge needs in your organization. You should also ensure that your suppliers have safeguards in place that protect your customers` data. There are many different things that companies can implement to reduce the risk of human error. However, many of your ailments would disappear if you emphasized the “need-to-know basis” mentality. The term “need to know” when used by governments and other organizations (especially those related to the military or espionage) describes the restriction of data considered highly sensitive. Even if you have all the necessary regulatory approvals (e.g., a security clearance) to access certain information, you would not be able to access that information under need-to-know restrictions or be read in a covert operation unless you have a specific need to know; This means that access to information must be necessary to perform one`s official duties.
This term also includes anyone with whom people with the knowledge have found it necessary to share it. Instead of having to worry about all the different specifications, requirements, and colloquial language laid out in the law and on the HHS website. That term sums it all up. But in reality, we know that this is not a safe state of mind. As the owner or administrator of a healthcare organization, you want to trust your employees to do the right thing. They will be attentive during their training and will know how to behave in a way that protects patients` health information. The main character hasn`t been on “active duty” as a super-secret agent for some time, or maybe she`s retired. But the scene before that triggered the conflict. The biggest, worst villain ever honored the screen has the most evil plot the world has ever seen. It is such a dangerous mission that the only hope in the world is the main character who receives a dossier that others have received on a “need-to-know” basis. Then, when their closest companion to the agency they worked for asked them to come back. The main character responds something like, “I`m not that person anymore.” Essentially, it states that health care professionals should not use or disclose PHI if it is not necessary for a particular purpose or function.
In the event that professionals decide that they must disclose or use PHI for a particular purpose, the rule requires that they share only the information that is relevant and necessary. People who do not need to see PSRs to perform their tasks should not. If you have a secretary whose duties include routing phone calls, greeting guests, and delivering packages, they should never get an X-ray of one of your patients. Seeing an X-ray does not affect their responsibility. If you don`t create a necessary knowledge base in your organization, you`ll suffer the consequences. It`s as simple as that. Of course, some providers that medical organizations work with need to have access to PHI or store PHI for their services to work. This is allowed as long as a Business Partner Agreement (BAA) is signed. You`re probably thinking, “OK, why is this section of the blog important? They break down the definition of a sentence. How does this help me understand HIPAA requirements? What they had to do was work on IBM machines – punching holes, numbers they didn`t understand. No one told them what it was.
Things have moved very slowly. I said that the first thing there has to be is for these technicians to know what we are doing. Oppenheimer went to talk to security and got special permission for me to give a nice lecture on what we were doing, and they were all excited: “We`re fighting a war! We`ll see what it is! They knew what the numbers meant. If the pressure was higher, it meant that more energy was released, and so on. They knew what they were doing. Complete transformation! They started to find ways to do better. They improved the system. They worked at night. They did not need surveillance at night; They didn`t need anything. They understood everything; They invented many of the programs we were using. Now that we know what is included in the necessary minimum standard and the positive effects of using the term “need to know,” the next step is to implement safeguards.
Second, if you don`t implement this type of culture in your company, you can also assume that you don`t have a comprehensive training program. As a result, you and your employees are missing out on best practices for protecting and securing the PHI you work with every day. In other words, you don`t realize how effective the exercise is in promoting general awareness. The use of the term “need to know” makes the necessary minimum standard easier to understand. If you incorporate this language into your policies and/or annual HIPAA training, your employees can easily understand the law. This simple change in colloquial language could have a lasting effect on your employees` training. If you`ve read any of the other blog posts I`ve written about HIPAA, you know how ambiguous the law as a whole is. The minimum standard necessary is no different in this respect. However, this part of the law is seen as flexible rather than enigmatic. In other words, it is designed to account for scenarios where covered entities may reside.
In both cases, comprehensive processes and safeguards must be in place to prevent targeted and accidental breaches. But it starts and ends with creating, communicating, and hosting a needs base. As with most security mechanisms, the goal is to make unauthorized access more difficult without interfering with legitimate access. The need to know also aims to prevent the “browsing” of sensitive material by limiting access to the smallest possible number of people. After reading this blog post, you now know that secret agents and medical professionals are not that different. Both operate on a need-to-know basis. If they didn`t, they risked some of the most private information on the planet. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a need-to-know basis means: “. You`re just telling [people] the facts they need to know when they need to know them, and nothing more. In other words, this definition is perfectly consistent with what the necessary minimum standard requires of health care organizations. One of the telltale signs of a good organization that can be trusted is whether it has created a well-thought-out and valued environment that you need to be aware of.