Hipaa.In » Hipaa Law http://www.hipaa.in One Spot Hipaa Portal Covers All Hipaa Topics Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:01:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Details on HIPAA laws http://www.hipaa.in/details-on-hipaa-laws.html http://www.hipaa.in/details-on-hipaa-laws.html#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 04:20:22 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=133 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 that data concerning your personal healthcare will be safeguarded. Rapid advancements in technology, the system of storing files and the confirmation procedures are undergoing changes and are getting modified. It is imperative that your records be kept protected at the time of sending these to various departments in healthcare centers, nursing homes and hospitals. This is done to ensure that accurate information is passed to you concerning your earlier agreements and interactions with service providers.

What exactly does the HIPAA safeguard and what facilities can consumers avail of? It tracks the basic health records, SSN, date of birth, where the consumer resides etc. Any data about any pre-existing medical condition, mental stress and earlier treatments for treating these will also be safeguarded.

Health records utilized by health insurance providers are also safeguarded by the HIPAA. In circumstances where the providers are forced to part with information about the best treatment, collecting non payments towards medical expenses and other healthcare related concerns, they can utilize recent information and records without your permission. The flip side is that the government is aware that technical language and complex words could act as a blockage to make the statement or information simpler.

HIPAA also makes a provision for backup for consumers that hunt for the right health insurance plan. Title 1 of HIPAA deals with the probable extension and getting the insurance plan for the consumer. If a consumer has legal papers, an appropriate health insurance plan and has not defaulted on premium payments but has failed to receive medical benefits and coverage as detailed in the terms and conditions, the consumers interests will be protected by HIPAA as such a regulation will be nullified.

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]]> http://www.hipaa.in/details-on-hipaa-laws.html/feed 0 Features of HIPAA Training http://www.hipaa.in/features-of-hipaa-training.html http://www.hipaa.in/features-of-hipaa-training.html#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 04:40:54 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=129 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 disrupt the company’s budget.

On-site training is also more preferred as compared to classroom training as the employees can get first hand idea about how to manage the records and other formalities in their own work place. This also saves a lot of time of the employees and they don’t need to waste time in commuting to and from the training center.

But classroom training also has a number of benefits. It provides a more focused training as students only concentrate on their training and are not interrupted by constant phone calls and emails at their workstations. Classroom training also facilitates better interaction between students, which facilitates a better understanding about training.  Visual and hearing aid can also be provided in the classroom training to help the students.

If you are planning to arrange for HIPAA training sessions for yourself or your firm, make sure that the training provider you choose is capable in handling your firm. Every company has different requirements in terms of situation, time period and method of training. Training provider must be capable in this.

HIPAA training is an important aspect of the HIPAA law and should not be taken lightly.

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]]> http://www.hipaa.in/features-of-hipaa-training.html/feed 0 HIPAA Certification: Who needs it? http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-certification-who-needs-it.html http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-certification-who-needs-it.html#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 06:31:17 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=120 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:

  1. 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 provides a list of documents that a covered entity must provide during the inspection.
  1. Business Associates – Every business associate of a covered entity is required to get HIPAA compliance certification. Business associates must comply with the terms f Business associate agreement they have entered with a covered entity. If a business associate is not in compliance with the HIPAA, as per its agreement, then its contract may be terminated and the firm can also be fined.

Business associates must create their Privacy and Security procedures and policies according to HIPAA law. Risk analysis and disaster recovery plan should also be conducted.

HIPAA certification is a way of proving that a covered entity is working according to the requirements given by HIPAA. The entity can prove that it is taking essential steps in securing private health information of every individual under its jurisdiction. It also establishes whether disclosure of information is being performed in the correct manner or not.

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]]> http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-certification-who-needs-it.html/feed 0 What Are HIPAA Laws? http://www.hipaa.in/what-are-hipaa-laws.html http://www.hipaa.in/what-are-hipaa-laws.html#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:47:28 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=108 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 updated medical information without prior permission, in order to provide the best treatment or collect payment from your health insurance.

Under HIPAA, the authorization process is supposed to be written in the most simple and understandable terms, instead of technical jargon. According to the policy makers, the technical terms make it difficult for people to really understand their own records and it is important to make sure that everyone understands their own records.

According to this act, you can also get backup healthcare package, if you want to extend or avail a good healthcare package. Title 1 of HIPAA law abolishes any order or rules which diminish legal right of a consumer to get proper benefits of health insurance. In other words, if you possess a health insurance and you do not have any pending dues or premiums, but still, your health insurance company refuses to provide you medical benefits, then HIPAA will cancel any such orders and protect your right to get insurance coverage.

This law is one of the best assistance that an American healthcare consumer has ever got. The laws of HIPAA are truly for the people.

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]]> http://www.hipaa.in/what-are-hipaa-laws.html/feed 2 Explaining The HIPAA Law http://www.hipaa.in/explaining-the-hipaa-law.html http://www.hipaa.in/explaining-the-hipaa-law.html#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:06:31 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=101 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.

  1. HIPAA privacy rule: This rule makes it mandatory to keep the personal health information of a person confidential.
  2. HIPAA Security Rule: This rule creates privacy standards for electronic health information of patients.

Under HIPPA, following information is protected:

  1. Medical Records: These include all kinds of identifiable medical information about a person.
  2. Conversations of a patient with his or her doctors and nurses about the treatment
  3. Billing information.
  4. Medical information in the computer systems of Health Insurance Company.
  5. 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:

  1. All healthcare providers: These include medical practitioners, clinics, nursing homes and hospitals.
  2. Health plan providers: These include HMOs, Medicaid, health plans provided by company, insurance companies and Medicare.

But HIPAA is not a universal law. This means that there are still some agencies which are not required to follow the rules of this act. Not every organization that may have the medical records of a patient is a “covered entity.” Life insurance companies, schools, workers compensation providers and employers are not required to comply with the privacy rules of HIPAA. Municipal offices and state and law enforcement agencies have also been exempted from this act.

HIPAA law provides a number of rights to the patient. They have the right to see and possess a copy of all of their health records that any medical institution has in its records. The institution may charge the patient to provide a copy of the records.

The patient is also entitled to know how his information will be protected. He must be informed of all the circumstances in which his information may be used and shared. A patient can also complaint against insurance company, doctor or any other institution, in case his or her information is misused or leaked without permission.

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]]> http://www.hipaa.in/explaining-the-hipaa-law.html/feed 1 HIPAA laws regarding information disclosure by health care providers http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-laws-regarding-information-disclosure-by-health-care-providers.html http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-laws-regarding-information-disclosure-by-health-care-providers.html#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:16:25 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=33 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 complaint to the hospital authorities and the employment of the defendant was terminated after an investigation had been made into the matter. Once the case had been taken to court, a one-year jail sentence was handed over to the defendant. Despite the fact that justice had been served, many people still wonder as to what extent the hospital is responsible for the breach in security of medical records, which had taken place.

According to federal laws, health care providers should be imposed with fines when the medical records of patients have been disclosed to people who should have gained access to them in the first place. The privacy regulations, which come under the health insurance portability and, accountability act of 1996 or HIPAA, were actually enforced only on April 14 2003. The health information of all people will be well protected under this act and people will also get access to better quality health care. All kinds of health care providers, health care plans, health care clearing houses, which are responsible for the administrative and financial transactions of the health care system, will be covered under HIPAA.

Apart from the privacy regulations, the security rules which come under the health insurance portability and accountability act or HIPAA became effective on April 21 2005. These are the only rules regarding the usage and disclosure of information, which is extremely sensitive and confidential. The security rules of HIPAA with regard to the protection of information in an electronic format come under three main groups namely administrative safeguards, physical safeguards and technical safeguards. Some of the more important safeguards are the administrative sanction policy and the security awareness training safeguards.

According to the sanction policy, all employees should receive an official notification regarding the civil and criminal penalties, which they are likely to face for the wrong and incorrect usage of medical information. According to the security awareness training standards, all employees should take part in all the training programs with regard to security.

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]]> http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-laws-regarding-information-disclosure-by-health-care-providers.html/feed 0 HIPAA laws and patients http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-laws-and-patients.html http://www.hipaa.in/hipaa-laws-and-patients.html#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:15:54 +0000 admin http://www.hipaa.in/?p=30 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 can be used.

The laws that come under HIPAA will also protect the medical insurance coverage, which has been provided for patients. The medical insurance, which is being provided to an employee, should be continued when he is either shifting jobs or when he is looking for a new job. Before this law had been enforced, any medical insurance coverage, which was being provided to the company, was cancelled immediately when the employee was fired, laid off or when he quit his job. This left a lot of families in a helpless position when they did not have medical insurance coverage until they found a new job and got the required medical insurance coverage from the new company.

The HIPAA laws have been created in such a manner that they will protect the rights of people who already have a pre-existing medical condition. They will ensure that these people get the right kind of medical insurance, which they need in order to get the right treatment for their medical condition. Previously any employee who had a known medical condition would be provided with medical insurance coverage when they changed their jobs and shifted companies. A proper waiting period has been provided under HIPAA and a person who has any kind of health problems can be assured that he will get the adequate amount of medical insurance coverage, which is needed in order to administer his treatment. HIPAA ensures that all patients get the right amount of protection and the right kind of medical insurance coverage, which they will require and they will also ensure that the privacy of the medical records of the patient is maintained to the maximum possible extent. In this manner, patients feel comforted and rest assured that their rights are being protected and that they will be well taken care of.

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