HIPAA Compliance Checklist Essay

US Congress created the Hipaa bill in 1996 because of public concern of how their private information was being used. It is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which Congress created to protect confidentiality, privacy and security of patient information. It was also for health care documents to be passed electronically. Hipaa is a privacy rule, which gives patients control over their health information. Patients have to give permission any healthcare provider can disclose any information placed in the individual’s medical records. It helps limit protected health information (PHI) to minimize the chance of inappropriate disclosure. It establishes national-level standards that healthcare providers must comply with and strictly investigates compliance related issues while holding violators to civil or criminal penalties if they violate the privacy of a person’s PHI. Hipaa also has boundaries for using and disclosing health records by covered entities; a healthcare provider, health plan, and healthcare clearinghouse. It also supports the cause of disclosing PHI without a person’s consent for individual healthcare needs, public benefit and national interests. The portability part of Hipaa guarantees patients health insurance to employees after losing a job, making sure health insurance providers can’t discriminate against people because of health status or pre-existing condition, and keeps their files safe while being sent electronically. The Privacy

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was established in 1996. This Act was put into place in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system. The HIPAA law includes a Privacy

Healthcare technology has grown and evolved over time. With the conversion to electronic medical records and the creation of social media just to name a few, ensuring patient privacy is of the utmost importance for healthcare facilities in this day and age. In order for an organization to avoid hefty fines, it is imperative that a healthcare administrator maintains compliance with the standards and regulations associated with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This paper will provide a summary

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is a statute endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1996. It offers protections for many American workers which improves portability and continuity of health insurance coverage. The seven titles of the final law are Title I - Health care Access , Portability, Title II - Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse; administrative simplification; Medical Liability Reform; Title III – Tax-related Health Provisions; Title IV – Application and

The HIPAA Rules require that when a HIPAA covered entity a provider, a plan, a clearinghouse or a business associate of a covered entity uses or discloses PHI, or when it requests PHI from another covered entity or business associate, the covered entity or business associate must make "reasonable efforts to limit PHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure, or request." (Duane Morris LLP , 2013) Under the HIPAA Rules, covered entities and business associates are required to identify which workforce members need access to what kind of PHI to carry out their job functions. In addition under the HIPAA Rules, covered entities and business associates are required to establish protocols that define the minimum necessary amount of PHI for routine uses, disclosures and requests, and how to apply the minimum necessary standard with respect to non-routine uses, disclosures and requests. Minimum necessary violations should be investigated and, if appropriate, reported according to the new breach notification rules. Business associates may be directly liable for minimum necessary standard violations. Covered entities may be liable for business associates' minimum necessary standard violations.

What is HIPAA Compliance? HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This act was created in 1996 by congress and signed by president Bill Clinton. It inspires systematization of medical data. HIPAA contains two rules which are privacy and security. HIPAA Security Rule conducts collections,transmittal, IT systems,and storage of electronic patient records. While HIPAA privacy rule controls paper records, HIPAA keeps medical information confidential and protects patient’s information from being put on social media or given to unknown people. Every medical company has devised it’s own standard for interpreting the HIPAA regulations.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule, which regulates the use and disclosure of certain information held by a covered entity, took effect on April 14, 2003. The Privacy Rule regulates the use and disclosure of PHI. A medical office specialist must know and understand the guidelines included under the Privacy Rule, such as the guidelines for release of a patient’s health information to their family, friends, or other persons identified by the patient which are outlined under the Health INsurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. As a medical office specialist you need to know the safeguards for reducing the risks to PHI.

Of route, all responsible companies are looking to live on top of HIPAA requirements to avoid hassle while going through an audit, but as threats to patient facts grow, authorities compliance will possibly be the least of your concerns.

The hospital accounting department will also be off limits except only for those personnel that are authorized. Extra vigilance must be place on all medical record rooms, since the hospital still has paper medical records. All medical staff will receive training so that they understand the importance of HIPAA. This policy will guarantee that we have controls in place in regards to accessing patient information and staff access is monitored.

     If you are in the healthcare industry, you have probably heard some rumblings about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, coolly referred to as HIPAA. The word is your medical practice will have to be HIPAA compliant by April 2003, but you're not exactly sure what this act mandates or how to accomplish it. In very basic terms, HIPAA has two primary components to which hospitals, health plans, healthcare "clearinghouses," and healthcare providers must conform: 1) Administrative simplification, which calls for use of the same computer language industry-wide; 2) Privacy protection, which requires healthcare providers to take reasonable measures to protect patients' written, oral, and

A have created and attached a flow sheet illustrating the HIPAA coverage, reminding us that each night, any and all documents which contain patient PHI (Name, date of birth, med recs, etc) MUST be locked up at your workstation. No documents containing PHI may remain unsecured.

HIPAA was put in place to help set standards on protecting a patients personal health information, therefore HIPAA does affect a patient’s access to medical records. A patient can review or obtain a copy of their records by submitting, to the physician (covered entity), a request for such in writing or a medical release form. In which case the covered entity can release a “designated record set” of certain personal

Then there are also the concerns of privacy issues. This is when HIPPA comes into effect. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) regulates the privacy of health information exchange. The HIPPA reduces health care fraud and abuse. It protects the privacy of all individual’s health information.

Healthcare providers have a responsibility to be HIPAA compliant with the EHR and are required to report breaches of health information. Schedulers have a hands-on operational responsibility to protect confidential medical information. To inform patients of their rights, a scheduler should send the Notice of the Privacy Practices and the Patient Rights and Responsibilities brochure to new patients. These documents detail the patient’s legal rights under HIPAA. Notices and brochures should be available in both English and Spanish language.

In order to fulfill the requirements for the confidentiality, integrity, and security of PHI as specified under the HIPAA Security Rule, you must properly address the Physical, Technical, and Administrative safeguards mentioned above. These three safeguards include implementation specifications—some of which are “required,” while others are “addressable.” Those implementation specifications that are required must be implemented, while addressable implementation specifications are best practices which must be implemented if it is reasonable and appropriate to do so (the choice must be documented). The HIPAA Enforcement Rule spells out in full the investigations, penalties, and procedures for HIPAA violation hearings, which we touched on briefly above. Finally, the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requires that you notify Health and Human Services (HHS), the media, and the public if the breach affects more than 500 patients. For a detailed discussion of these of these four rules or more information on just what it takes to become HIPAA compliant, read the Developer’s Guide to