What is the importance of confidentiality and the effect of the HIPAA regulations have had on healthcare?

if there was no confideniality it could effect your employment. If you have serious health problems, then you may need a "special needs" health care program, and that will cost the company more money, so if they can get that info. before you've been hired, that may effect their decision to employ you.

Confidentiality prevents the patient from being prejudiced against based on their health care back ground. This means the person cooking your Pasta alfredo or cooking up your hamburgers at a fast food restaraung may have HIV, Hepatitis, or some other contagious disease and their employer is not allowed to be made privy to that information.
It means no matter what ails you, it is no ones business but your own.
HIPPA regulations is an extra effort to keep your medical background safe and hidden. It may be in the record, but no one is allowed to review that information unless they are directly involved in your health care.
HIPPA regulations means your health care is kept strictly confidential from everyone unless you specifically sign authorization for another person to review that history.
This is why whey you call the hospital and ask if you may be able to speak w/ your mother, no one will admit she is there. You may spend the next 3 days trying to find her.
Its really pretty pathetic. We deal w/ this dilemma everyday in the hospital. You know Uncle Buck has dementia and comes to the hospital, but no one can know he is there because he forgot to put his wife and kids names on the authorization to know list. Family members call us and tell us off all because we cannot admit grandpa is in the hospital over HIPPA laws.