|
HIPAA Compliance 101
What is HIPAA?
The U.S. Congress ordained the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996. Title I of HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they lose or change their jobs. According to title II of HIPAA, the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions, requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. The AS provisions also address the security and privacy of health data. The purpose of all these standards is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in health care.
The AS provisions are applicable to only ‘covered entities’. Covered entities are those health care providers (e.g. doctors offices and hospitals) which engage in electronic transactions as per the HIPAA/EDI rules, health plans (which includes health insurance companies and employer-sponsored ‘group health plans’), and health care clearing houses.
Applying HIPAA Provisions
Certain key provisions need to be followed for HIPAA compliance. Individuals should be able to access their records and request correction of errors. Also, they should be informed about how their personal information will be used. The ‘protected health information’ (PHI) indicates that the information cannot be used for marketing purposes without the explicit consent of the patients in question. People should be able to ask their covered entities (which maintain PHI about them), to ensure that their communications with the patient are confidential. It should be possible for people to file formal privacy-related complaints to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights. Covered entities should document their privacy procedures, however, they have discretion on what to include in their privacy procedure. Covered entities are required to designate a privacy officer and train their employees. Covered entities can use an individual's information without the individual's consent if the purposes is to provide treatment, obtain payment for services and to perform the non-treatment operational tasks of the provider's business.
About the Author: Chris Tolamalu is interested in HIPAA compliance. See http://www.hipaacompliancejournal.com for more information.
Source: www.isnare.com
Written by: Chris Tolamalu
|
 |
Home
List of Articles
Recent Articles
Car Financing – The F&I Department
OK, you’ve finally gotten through the front end part of buying your car. You have worked hard done some tough negotiating and feel like you have negotiated a good and fair deal on your car purchase and trade-in. Now it’s time to head into the...
Car Rental Guidelines
Rates for the same-size car can vary widely from company to company with extra costs nearly doubling the basic rental rate. Ask the reservation clerk to calculate the total cost of the rental, including such extras as mileage, insurance, taxes...
The Basics Of Used Car Buying
Buying a Used Car? Know the Basics
If you feel purchasing a new car is tricky, then buying a second
hand car can be quite trickier. But don't fret just yet--with
these guidelines to keep you on track, that used car could be
one of the...
|
