Not many are aware of the abbreviation of HIPAA. Are you aware of the what functions this term entails? If you aren’t aware, be sure to investigate thoroughly to increase your awareness of the HIPAA law that was passed in 1996 to safeguard the interests of the consumers. All of us, at one time or the other, have visited the doctor for a routine checkup. And during one of these trips, you are given an agreement that you are required to sign. You are asked to review the terms and conditions of HIPAA prior to initialing the contract. It is imperative for you to know what HIPAA stands for and how it safeguards the interests of the common man. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and this has been drafted as a beneficial tool for patients. The American higher authority has drafted this new rule to restrict the interest of consumers inside the lawful boundary. Consumers must be protected from theft, scam, fraudulent transaction and the unlawfulness concerning the provision of healthcare facilities and benefits to the patients or the policy holders. Truth is, patients in different hospitals are treated by different doctors and physicians. The HIPAA law ensures ...

As per rules of HIPAA, every individual whose working in a covered entity and handles medical records (electronic and on papers) of patients, must undergo HIPAA certification training. This training must be provided a qualified instructor. This training is provided by independent training centers. Companies hire professionals from these centers to train and educate their employees and high level management about every aspect of HIPAA. Once the training is completed, the training institutes provides a HIPAA certification to every employee who has completed the training successfully. These certifications are used to prove the skills of the employees during OCR inspections. HIPPA training can be done in many different manners. The employees can choose a one-on-one instructor led training method, classroom training, online training, virtual classroom training or on-site training. Different companies choose different methods to provide this training. Covered entities like hospitals, health insurance providers, healthcare clearing houses etc. are required by the law to provide training to their employees. Failure to comply with this law might end-up in a fine for them. Most covered entities prefer to provide group training instead of one-on-one training as it is much more time consuming. In big companies, one-on-one training may also cost too much and ...

Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for enforcing and managing (HIPAA) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The department mandates certifications for various entities in the compliance of this law. There are no official companies which provide these certifications. The covered entities, which include hospitals, health care providers, health insurance companies, doctors, etc., are required conduct evaluations which classify the extent to which covered entities comply with the requirements of HIPAA law. These evaluations can be done internally or externally by an organization which will provide a certification that the entity’s policies and procedures regarding security of data are in compliance with the law. Here, it should be noted that an individual who has the access to confidential identifiable information of people, doesn’t require having HIPAA certification. Rather, he or she must undergo training to learn the right methods to handle the data. Following entities require HIPAA certification: Covered Entity – Every conduct entity is required comply with each and every rule listed in HIPAA. The HHS office of General (OIG) conduct regular audits and inspections to ensure that all the security and privacy rules are being followed. These inspections are done onsite and prior information is sent to the entity. OIG ...

HIPAA was enacted in 1996 and its sole objective was to protect patients’ personal information. This law is something that we all have to use at some point of our life. Whether we meet and accident or have a new baby, we provide a lot of personal medical information to our doctors regarding the present and past health history of ourselves and our family members. HIPAA protects this information from falling into wrong hands. Hipaa law was created while keeping the interest of common consumers in mind. During any kind of treatment, the medical records of a patient pass through many hands. All the nurses, hospital staff, doctors, insurance company officials etc. have access to these records. If not protected, any of these people can leak, steal or misuse our personal details for his private gain or that of the institution he works for. But thankfully, patients can now hold all of these entities responsible, if any of their information is misused. HIPAA protects our basic health information, address, social security number, records of pre-existing medical conditions, treatments done in the past, pre-existing mental stress, birth date etc. All the information used by doctors is also protected, but they can access your ...

HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It This act came in force in 1996 to protect unnecessary disclosure and exploitation of health information of consumers. It is made of two major sets of rules. HIPAA privacy rule: This rule makes it mandatory to keep the personal health information of a person confidential. HIPAA Security Rule: This rule creates privacy standards for electronic health information of patients. Under HIPPA, following information is protected: Medical Records: These include all kinds of identifiable medical information about a person. Conversations of a patient with his or her doctors and nurses about the treatment Billing information. Medical information in the computer systems of Health Insurance Company. All the information that unnecessary reveals your medical information. The entities which are bound to comply with HIPAA are known as “covered entities.” This Act must be followed by the following people: All healthcare providers: These include medical practitioners, clinics, nursing homes and hospitals. Health plan providers: These include HMOs, Medicaid, health plans provided by company, insurance companies and Medicare. But HIPAA is not ...

In June 2009, a young mother of three children was sentenced to imprisonment for publishing the medical records of a woman who was HIV positive on her personal web page on the Internet. The state of Hawaii has pressed criminal charges against the woman stating that she has committed a class B felony by accessing a computer when she did not have the required authority and authorization. When further investigation was conducted into the case, it was revealed that the HIV positive woman and her sister-in-law had some disagreements between them and the woman who has publicized the medical records was a friend of the sister-in-law. She was working as a representative of patient services at the hospital where the HIV positive woman was coming for her checkups. She had pulled out the medical records of the patient from the computer at the hospital. The medical records of the patient had been accessed three times in a time period of ten months. Once the employee learned regarding the medical condition of the patient, she posted the details on her personal page on My space. During the second posting, she stated that the patient was dying of AIDS. The patient made a ...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 which is otherwise known in common circles as HIPAA has had an impact on people working in the field of healthcare, medical insurance companies and patients who are receiving medical treatment. This Act has been implemented keeping in mind the welfare of the patient and protecting their health insurance when they lose their jobs or when they change their jobs as well as protecting the privacy of the medical information of patients. Frauds in the field of medical insurance also get drastically reduced in this manner. One of the main advantages of HIPAA is that patients have become more aware of their rights. Whenever a patient goes to a office of a doctor, clinic, hospital or counseling center, he should be given a copy off the policies which come under HIPAA and they should sign a statement stating that they have either read all the rules and policies or that they have not consciously not taken note of the new rules. Patients should be well aware of their rights when it comes to their medical records. Anyone who has access to their medical information should also be aware of their medical information ...