BHS Medical Ethics and Law 5

Question 1

Which federal law governs the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information held by covered entities?

Accepted Answer

HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules

Answer

HIPAA's Privacy Rule protects individually identifiable health information, and the Security Rule sets standards for electronic protected health information (ePHI) safeguards.

Question 2

Veracity as an ethical principle in healthcare requires that providers:

Accepted Answer

Be truthful with patients in a compassionate and clinically appropriate manner

Answer

Veracity obligates providers to be honest with patients while exercising sensitivity about timing, context, and emotional readiness in communicating difficult information.

Question 3

In the Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California ruling, the court established that therapists have:

Accepted Answer

A duty to warn identifiable third parties of serious threats from patients

Answer

Tarasoff (1976) established that mental health professionals must take reasonable steps to protect identifiable potential victims when a patient poses a credible threat of serious harm.

Question 4

The principle of double effect is invoked ethically when:

Accepted Answer

A good action has a foreseeable but unintended harmful side effect

Answer

The doctrine of double effect permits an action with harmful side effects (e.g., high-dose opioids that may hasten death) if the intent is a good outcome (relief of suffering) and the harm is not the means to the good.

Question 5

A provider's duty of fidelity in healthcare ethics primarily means:

Accepted Answer

Keeping promises and honoring commitments made to patients

Answer

Fidelity (faithfulness) obligates healthcare providers to honor the trust patients place in them by keeping promises, maintaining confidentiality, and fulfilling professional commitments.

BHS - Bachelor of Health Science Practice Test

BHS - Bachelor of Health Science Practice Test

BHS Medical Ethics and Law 5