HEALTH LAW AND ETHICS - Essay Example

Health Laws and Ethics Various governmental health agencies have the task of formulating, implementing and enforcing healthcare laws or regulations. The healthcare laws or regulations aim at ensuring that healthcare organizations focus on integrity and observe ethical and professional behaviors, in the process of delivering public health. This paper discusses the ways that healthcare laws or regulations affect healthcare organizations. Healthcare laws or regulations are important in that they ensure that healthcare organization operate within the policies that have been formulated by the government.

In essence, the policies that healthcare organizations are supposed to follow are derived from healthcare legislation. Healthcare laws or regulations operationalize the healthcare industry in which healthcare organizations function. Additionally, the healthcare laws or regulations, aim at protecting patients from being exploited by healthcare organizations (Hammaker & Tomlinson 23).Firstly, through healthcare laws or regulations, healthcare organizations observe patient confidentiality, and avoid disclosing a patient’s treatment information without the patient’s consent.

If laws and regulations governing patient confidentiality were non-existent, then healthcare organizations would disclose patient records without consent. Secondly, the laws or regulations force healthcare organization to prioritize a patient’s health instead of focusing on profit making. Thirdly, the laws or regulations affect healthcare organizations in that organizations are obliged to follow ethical procedures when conducting research on new drugs. The absences of the laws would result in healthcare organizations unethically trying out new drugs whose side effects are unclearly on human beings, which can turn out to be detrimental (Hammaker & Tomlinson 33).

In conclusion, various healthcare laws and regulations affect how healthcare organizations function within the healthcare sector. Ultimately, the laws and regulations gear towards ensuring that healthcare organizations are honest, ethical and professional when bringing health to the public. Works CitedHammaker, Donna. & Tomlinson, Sarah. Health Care Management and the Law: Principles and Applications. Sydney: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.