Specialty Certified Medical Assistant Medical Law, Ethics, and Compliance 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which federal law primarily governs the privacy of patient health information in the United States?
- OSHA
- HIPAA (Correct answer)
- ADA
- CLIA
Correct answer: HIPAA
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) establishes national standards for the protection of individually identifiable health information.
Question 2: What is informed consent?
- The patient's signature on an admission form
- A patient's voluntary agreement to a procedure after being fully explained risks, benefits, and alternatives (Correct answer)
- A physician's order authorizing a procedure
- A legal document waiving the patient's right to sue
Correct answer: A patient's voluntary agreement to a procedure after being fully explained risks, benefits, and alternatives
Informed consent requires that patients voluntarily agree to treatment after receiving a complete explanation of the procedure, its risks, benefits, and alternatives.
Question 3: Under HIPAA, which of the following is considered protected health information (PHI)?
- De-identified patient records
- A patient's name combined with their diagnosis (Correct answer)
- Aggregated statistical health data
- Information shared among treating providers within the same facility
Correct answer: A patient's name combined with their diagnosis
PHI includes any individually identifiable health information such as a patient's name linked with their medical condition, diagnosis, or treatment.
Question 4: What is the medical assistant's responsibility when asked to perform a task outside their scope of practice?
- Complete the task if they feel confident
- Refuse and report the request to a supervisor (Correct answer)
- Ask another medical assistant to do it instead
- Perform it once and document it as an exception
Correct answer: Refuse and report the request to a supervisor
Medical assistants must refuse tasks outside their scope of practice and report the request to a supervisor to protect patient safety and legal compliance.
Question 5: Which ethical principle requires healthcare workers to do no harm?
- Autonomy
- Beneficence
- Nonmaleficence (Correct answer)
- Justice
Correct answer: Nonmaleficence
Nonmaleficence is the ethical principle of 'do no harm,' obligating healthcare providers to avoid actions that cause unnecessary injury or suffering.
Question 6: A patient asks you not to share their medical information with their spouse. What should the medical assistant do?
- Inform the spouse anyway if they ask directly
- Honor the patient's request and document it (Correct answer)
- Ask the physician to decide
- Share information only if the spouse is the emergency contact
Correct answer: Honor the patient's request and document it
Patients have the right to control who receives their health information, and the medical assistant must honor and document this request under HIPAA.
Specialty Certified Medical Assistant Medical Law, Ethics, and Compliance 1
Which federal law primarily governs the privacy of patient health information in the United States?