Hipaa Compliance
Hipaa Compliance
In order to create a national standard for protecting the privacy of patients' personal health information (PHI), HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed into a law by the Privacy Rule of the Department of Health and Human Services. The chief aim of the law was to protect health information by establishing transaction standards for the exchange of health information, security standards, and privacy standards for the use and disclosure of individually identifiable health information. HIPAA deals with the security and privacy of health information and applies to health care providers and employer group health plans. Any person who handles patient documentation of any type should be educated on HIPAA compliance.
HIPAA compliance needs thorough attention and effort, if any failure to adhere involves high risk of reputation damage, heavy fines and imprisonment varying from 1 year to 10 years. The last 10 years of the 19th century saw a speedy increase of digital technology in health care, with lesser expenditure and much better service quality. It has resulted in new and higher risks for inadvertent disclosure of private health information.
Main Requirement of HIPAA
Protected Health Information (PHI), which covers any aspect that can be required to identify a person and any information or data exchanged or disclosed to other health care providers in any medium viz. digital, verbal, recorded, faxed, printed or written, is the main requirement of HIPAA
HIPAA Principles
- To improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets
- To combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery
- To reduce costs and the administrative burdens of health care by improving efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system by standardizing the interchange of electronic data for specified administrative and financial transactions
- To ensure protecting the privacy of Americans' personal health records by protecting the security and confidentiality of health care information
How to Comply with HIPAA
There are several ways one may qualify as a "Covered Entity" that is required to comply with the terms of HIPAA. Some of these are apparent like health care. In case one's organization qualifies as a "health plan," then also one is considered a Covered Entity. Health plan is nothing but any organization that "provides medical care, including items and services paid for as medical care, to employees or their dependents directly or through insurance." If you offer employees medical care through a self-insured plan, chances are that you're covered under HIPAA. Other organizations may fall under the "health care clearinghouse" provision based upon their responsibilities for processing health care data.
Once you are covered under HIPAA, there are two specific regulations of interest. These are: the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the HIPAA Security Rule.
HIPAA Privacy Rule
The Privacy Rule protects all individually identifiable protected health information (PHI) maintained by the Covered Entity. It is not specific to electronic information and applies equally to written records, telephone conversations, etc. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, PHI includes data that relates to:
- the individual's past, present or future physical or mental health or condition or
- the provision of health care to the individual or
- the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual
HIPAA Security Rule
The Security Rule deals with electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI), which is created, received, used, or maintained by a covered entity. The Security Rule requires implementation of three types of safeguards: 1) administrative, 2) physical, and 3) technical. Various security standards are identified by the rule for each of these types, and for each standard, it names both required and addressable implementation specifications. Required specifications must be adopted and administered as dictated by the Rule. Addressable specifications are more flexible. Individual covered entities can evaluate their own situation and determine the best way to implement addressable specifications.
In nutshell, a HIPAA compliance refers to the standards and regulations that hospitals must comply to in order to avoid potentially devastating fines.
Questions and Answers
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HIPAA Compliance
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) endeavors to regulate electronic transactions in healthcare to reduce costs; to establish requirements for practitioners, hospitals, and health plans to protect the confidentiality of that information; and to allow portability of preexisting condition exemption between employer health insurance group plans. HIPAA was enacted into federal law in 1996.
Business Associates are required to comply with HIPAA Privacy and Security rules as per the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Act). Title XIII of the Act is artfully entitled the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (also referred to as HITECH) Act.
HIPAA compliance training course is ideal for those who work in hospitals, insurance companies, nursing homes and dental clinics. This course is mainly designed for making their administrative procedures much simpler and for maintaining the privacy of the patients' data with much ease.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has brought about significant changes in the healthcare industry's approach to data protection. According to the Ponemon Institute's benchmark study on Patient Privacy and Data Security, of Nov 2010, "data breaches were responsible for huge costs for healthcare organizations that amounted to an average of close to $1million annually." However, the HITECH Act is expected to change this scenario soon
The OCR aims to obtain HIPAA compliance from Covered Entity and Business Associate by implementing new rules. This is a part of its strategy to infuse customer confidence to provide their health information to the electronic patient health information system.
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The HIPAA Security Rule is the main part of HIPAA--federal legislation that was passed into law in August 1996. This rule requires covered entities to implement safeguards to protect Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI) from unauthorized access, alteration, deletion, and transmission. The Security Rule requires implementation of three types of safeguards: Administrative, Physical, Technical.
HIPAA is an acronym that stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996 to ensure that privacy is maintained in regards to patients' medical records. HIPAA to greater extent has transformed the way that healthcare providers manage patients' personal information. HIPAA has not only set the ground rules for sharing patient records between clinics and insurance companies, it has also created a vast new standard for ensuring the privacy
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996 to make certain that privacy in regards to patients' medical records is maintained properly. HIPAA in various ways has changed the way healthcare providers manage patients' personal information. HIPAA has not only set the ground rules for sharing patient records between clinics and insurance companies, it has also created a vast new standard for ensuring the privacy of personal medical informati
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