HIPAA Security Policy

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) is a national act that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The Act was meant to establish standards that are to be applied nationally in dealing with the medical records and also other personal health care information by all the stakeholders. The rule calls for proper care in disseminating medical health information and sets minimum requirements that must be adhered to before the documents can be transmitted. It also set the scope of information that can be distributed without prior authorization by the patient. This rule gives the patient power to access medical information and allow them even to make copies as per their needs. HIPAA facilitates health

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set of national standards created for the protection of health information; it is also known as a “Privacy Rule”. This rule was employed in 1996 by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to address the use and disclosure of an individual’s health information as well as the standards for the individual’s privacy rights to understand and control the manner in which their information is used.

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.

Section 264 of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the PHI relates to all patients (PHI) in any format EMR; electronic, written, verbal, or image. This rule applies to all three types of covered entities and business associates: health plans, clearinghouses and vendors.

HIPAA, signed into law in 1996, addresses various healthcare issues including insurance coverages, tax-related provisions and group health insurance requirements. HIPPA includes the Privacy Rule which establishes national standards to safeguard patient’s protected healthcare information (“PHI”) including medical records and gives patients access to their health information. These standards apply to health plans, health care clearinghouses and providers who manage healthcare transactions electronically including pharmacists and pharmacy staff.

and patients. Also, it will give recommendations on how to improve the implementation of this

Continuing with the protection of information, HIPAA also has a Security Rule that goes hand in hand with the Privacy Rule. This Security Rule differs from the Privacy Rule as it applies specifically to the safeguarding of information through the electronic protected health information (EPHI). Under this rule there are three types of safeguards mentioned: technical, administrative, and physical (Terry, 2015).

You cannot share protected health information with other individuals. There are instances where you will need a patient’s consent to share protected health information, such as when it’s for anything other than the reasons that are required by the HPAA privacy rule. The public health authorities can prove beneficial to you by guiding you in the proper manner of storing and transmission of mandatory public health reporting. The difference between HIPAA Privacy and Security is, “HIPAA regulations cover both security a nd privacy of protected health information. Security and privacy are distinct, but go hand-in-hand.”

The impact of HIPAA with adhering to rules pertaining to confidentiality and release PHI (protected health information) HIPAA rules give you new rights to know about and to control how your health information gets used. Y our healthcare provider and your insurance company have to explain how they'll use and disclose health information. You can ask for copies of all this information, and make appropriate changes to it. If someone wants to share your health information, you have to give your formal consent. You have the right to complain to HHS (health and human services) about violations of HIPAA rules. Health information is to be used only for health purposes. In HIPAA under the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information

A main key point I found interesting in this article is that HIPAA privacy regulations require covered entities to implement certain administrative,technical,and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of any

HIPAA sets up two major rules addressing privacy and security. The first, the Privacy Rule, addresses the need to keep PHI confidential by limiting its disclosure and use. There are several means in

Any patient that is seen by a physician within the United States is to be protected by the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” or HIPAA, which was passed into law in 1996 (Jani, 2009). All health care facilities dealing with any protected health information (PHI) are to ensure that all physical/electronic processes are safeguarded from any third party entity or unauthorized personnel according to HIPAA. All health care data to include any medical insurance

Like all of the administrative rules, the security rule applies to health plans, health care clearing houses, and to any health care provider who transmits health information in electronic form in connection with a transaction for which the Secretary of HHS has adopted standards under HIPAA. Health plans include health, dental, vision, and prescription drug insurers, health maintenance organizations, Medicare, Medicaid and Medicare supplement insurers, and long-term care insurers. Health plans also include employer-sponsored group health plans, government and church-sponsored health plans, and multi-employer health plans. Every health care provider, regardless of size, who electronically transmits health information in connection with certain transactions, is a covered entity. Using electronic technology, such as email, does not mean a health care provider is a covered entity; the transmission must be in connection with a standard transaction. The Privacy Rule covers a health care provider whether it electronically transmits these transactions directly or uses a billing service or other third party to do so on its behalf. Health care providers include all providers of services and providers of medical or health services as defined by Medicare, and any other person or organization that furnishes, bills, or is paid for health care.

By law, the HIPAA Privacy Rule applies only to covered entities – health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers. However, most health care providers and health plans do not carry out all of their health care activities and functions by themselves. Instead, they often use the services of a variety of other persons or businesses. The Privacy Rule allows covered providers and health plans to disclose protected health information to these “business associates” if the providers or plans obtain satisfactory assurances that the business associate will use the information only for the purposes for which it was engaged by the covered entity, will safeguard the information from misuse, and will help the covered entity comply

Ten years ago after much challenges and questionable skepticism, the HIPAA policy became effective and has been shaping healthcare one regulatory policy at a time. The evolution of the HIPAA privacy act helped establish the HIPAA Security Rule which was published in 2003 and became effective in 2005, and then eventually led to the HIPAA Enforcement Rules and the Breach Notification Rule. With it joint fortification of the 2009 HITECH Act and HIPAA’s modifications to regulations, it was released in January 2013 to the industry (American Health Information Management Association, 2013).