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Running Head: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICE 0
Department of Health and Human Service
Name: LaShanda Lewis
Institution: Strayer University
Date: 16 Jan 2017
Department of Health and Human Service
Introduction
The US department of health and human service (HHS) is a principal agency responsible for protection of the health of all citizens of America and provision of human services. The HHS also has an objective of increasing access of health care services to the Americans Indians and Alaska and natives. The agency has four strategic goals that focuses on the major function of the agency. The goals include Strengthen Health Care, Advance the Health, Safety, and Well-Being of the American People and Advance Scientific Knowledge and Innovation (Strategic Goals, Objective and Strategies 2014).
The agency has 5 major events since the year 2000-2010. Publication of human sequencing genome was done in 2000, a scientific research project that had a goal of determining the sequence of nucleotide base pair. In 2001 the HHS created The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid that replaced the Health Care Financing Administration (HHS Historical Highlights 2014). The Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness was initiated to coordinate efforts against bioterrorism and other emergency health threat in 2002. Moreover, in 2003 the agency enacted the Medicare prescription drug improvement and modernization Act of 2003 (HHS Historical Highlights 2014). In 2010, HHS signed the affordable care act into law thus putting in place comprehensive insurance reforms.
Agency Functions
The US department of health and human service is responsible for about a quarter of all federal outlays and administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined (Overview 2017). HHS ensures that patient safety and health care quality is promoted in any health care setting in America and by health care provider. The agency ensures that patients in the health care obtain quality food in the health care and also ensures that the food taken by the patient is secure to prevent any shortage. The agency also ensure that drugs and vaccines administers to the patients in health care are safe for consumption and effective. HHS ensure that all health care integrate technology in their health operation appropriately.
The HHS has the function of conducting health, social science, and public health research (Overview 2017). The agency is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world. In return, the department has created thousands of high-quality jobs for scientists in university and research institution in all states across America and the rest of the world. The department through its programs and partnership is responsible for the leverages of health information to ensure that the quality of health care is improved. Moreover, HHS ensures that its data is used to drive innovative to health public health and human services challenges.
Agency News
The US department of health and human service has a newsroom which is gateway to HHS latest news releases and press office information. From the newsroom, the two latest news are: the ONC announcement of the winners of consumer and provider app challenges to improve health information use and access; and the enforcement action for lack of timely breach notification and settles for $475, 000.
On January 9, the US Department of Health and Human Service, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced HIPAA settlement based on the untimely reporting of the breach of the unsecured protected health information. Presence Health, one of the largest health care networks agreed to settle the violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act breach notification rule by paying $ 475,000 (HHS Press Office 2017). On January 12, the department’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced the phase 2 winners of consumer health data aggregator challenge and the provider user challenge (ONC Media Affairs 2017). The challenges were designed to encourage the development of applications that would be responsible for consumers and providers to aggregate health data from different sources into one secure, sure friendly product.
Rationale for Selecting Agency
The Department of health and human service is an essential agency among the government agencies. The department is so crucial agency because unlike the other two (Housing and Urban Development, Social Security Administration) the agency focuses on very essential basic need, health which is are significant to individual. Without health, an individual can need social security or rather housing and urban development. For effective housing and urban development, a developer need to be healthy to develop a good plan.
Health care organizations are very critical organization and thus having a government department like the Department of Health and Human Services is very vital as health care organization can prevent the contagious diseases that can cause the death of many people in the society. Thus, the Department of Health and Human Services in regards to the other two is the most essential.
Reference
HHS Historical Highlights. (2014). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: https://www.hhs.gov/about/historical-highlights/index.html?language=es
HHS Press Office. (2017). First HIPAA enforcement action for lack of timely breach notification settles for $475,000. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/01/09/first-hipaa-enforcement-action-lack-timely-breach-notification-settles-475000.html?language=es
ONC Media Affairs. (2017) ONC Announces Winners of Consumer and Provider App Challenges to Improve Health Information Access and Use. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/01/09/first-hipaa-enforcement-action-lack-timely-breach-notification-settles-475000.html?language=es
Overview. (2017). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: https://www.hhs.gov/about/strategic-plan/introduction/index.html#overview
Strategic Goals, Objective, and Strategies. (2014). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: https://www.hhs.gov/about/strategic-plan/introduction/index.html#strategic-goals
