CASE STUDY A Question of Priorities It is clear that the HIPAA legislation regarding patient privacy is attempting to deal with a real problem. However, it is equally clear that the costs of health care are spi- raling out of control, and we now have over 45 million Americans without health care insurance. According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals nationwide expect to spend between $4 billion and $22 billion to comply with the legislation. U.S. Repre- sentative Michael Burgess, whose background includes practice as an obstetrician! gynecologist, has argued that implementation should be delayed, saying, "HIPAA is just one more thing layered on that is not delivering one dollar of value to patient care and not increasing our revenue stream at all. This is just money going out of the prac- tice. In effect, it's an overhead increase."22 1. Which of the two arguments, maintaining patient privacy or holding down costs, is more important? 2. If you were going to convince someone of the value of your argument either for or against the implementation of HIPAA, what would you say? 3. Prepare a cost-benefit (pro-con) list for each side of the issue.