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Strong health care rests within a foundation of respect and humanity. When people seek health care, not only do they seek the wisdom and knowledge of providers but they also seek a professional connection that makes them feel comfortable. They make sometimes difficult decisions based on the information they are given as it applies to their individual situation and to their family, community, and cultural context. They do so privately, within a network of confidentiality. The work of health care providers is guided by ethical principles, broader philosophical principles, and relevant legislation. Recent legislation, in the form of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104–191, also known as the Kennedy–Kassebaum Act, was drafted to protect privacy in the electronic era. It contains prongs designed to improve efficiency of health care delivery, to standardize electronic data interchange, to protect confidentiality and security of health data, and to protect the confidentiality and integrity of individually identifiable health care information. Ethical principles do not carry the weight of the law, but they are mandatory within professions and they traditionally have been used as touchstones to provide a lens through which professional conduct may be examined, measured, debated, modified, and improved. Philosophical principles reflect higher-order constructs, beliefs, approaches to individuals and work, and values within work. This chapter aims to integrate these three approaches to professional conduct as they apply to clinical health psychology in medical centers. In the ever-evolving ethical and legal contours of heath care, the bases for shaping the interface between professionals and consumers lie in the law, ethics codes, and philosophical notions of what constitutes professionalism. Within each of these sources, it is possible to enrich dialogue on the impact of a professional’s conduct on the individual patient, the community of consumers (the public), public perceptions of the profession of clinical health psychology, and the community of clinical health psychology providers. |
