HIPAA Compliance for Dental Offices now stand in parallel with the medical organizations in terms of having access to Protected Health Information (PHI). Meaning they must adhere to the same level of privacy and security safeguards as the medical community when protecting it's patients health information. HIPAA rules and regulations are applicable to dental practices regardless of their size. According to the American Dental Association (ADA), “if a dental practice is a covered entity, the practice will need to take steps to comply which include but are not limited to:
Appointing a HIPAA Privacy and Security Officer Implementing a HIPAA compliance program; Maintaining compliance in an ongoing manner; Perform a risk assessment; Train workforce members; and Develop Policies and Procedures.
HIPAA Policies and Procedures
Dental practices should carefully review their privacy and security policies, compile evidence that the policies have been implemented and enforced, and be able to demonstrate that they have reviewed and updated policies in accordance with the law, operations, and information technology standards that affect the security of PHI and ePHI in the organization’s possessions or control, including the acquisition of new entities. These policies and procedures must be treated as living and breathing documents. Additionally, offices should create and update policies and procedures on topics that may not have been relevant in years past, but
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA was introduced to the House of Representative in 1996. HIPAA was a huge piece of legislation that was intended to fix many aspects of health care and health insurance, and includes sections that ensure portability of health insurance, simplify the administration of health insurance coverage, and standardize electronic transactions between health care providers and insurance companies. This is also the law that sets up Medical Savings Accounts and requires insurers to cover patients with pre-existing conditions. The section of HIPAA that concerns
The main goal of HIPAA is to protect unauthorized access and misuse of confidential health information. It allows for the safe storage of any health facts used, collected, transmitted or maintained by any health organization. It states that all health information about a particular client is completely confidential, regardless of what the format is and whether it is transmitted, maintained or collected. Protected information is that health information that already identifies the patient or could be used in order to identify the patient; it also relates to any of the patient’s past, present or future health conditions, any treatment the patient receives and any payment the patient makes toward their care.
All healthcare providers, health organizations, and government health plans that use, store, maintain, or transmit patient health care information are required to comply with the privacy regulations of the HIPAA
In 1996, the HIPPA act was passed. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which was directed to improve the areas in the health field. For instance, lowering the number of errors and mistreatment, for individuals to have the access to transfer health coverage according to their present situation, and most importantly it monitors security and confidentiality information to ensure its being controlled in an accurate manner. This act gives congress ability to govern financial matter such as, federal level funding processes pertaining to different health documentation. Providing quality care while protecting patient’s information is a priority controlled under HIPAA, which accepts collaboration with all state and federal
Specific Purpose: I want to inform my audience about HIPAA “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act”.
Did you know that violating HIPAA can lead to criminal charges and even possible jail time? Also can cost you up to $1.5 million a year depending on the violation (Brown,2014). Violating HIPAA can be something as little as talking about the treatment of your patient that day to another nurse in the elevator. In this paper HIPAA will be defined and the importance of HIPAA in the health care system. As well as outcomes of what will happen if laws are violated. In addition, the scenario ending and what should happen to the nurse. Lastly, the advantages and disadvantages of cellphones and electronic devices in healthcare.
What the HIPAA law states. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a law that was enacted in 1996 establishing safeguards and rules to protect patients demographics and medical records. These rules limit the circumstances of how health records are used or obtained without the patient's authorization. HIPAA has set national standards that require these safeguards to maintain the attainability of health records and keeping them classified. This rule applies to any institutional and noninstitutional providers and only a written authorization by the patient will allow any use of their health records be disclosed.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a national law that protects a patient’s rights to privacy. As a Medical Administrative Assistant, it is important for you to understand and uphold this law to protect your patients’ health information. In this assignment, you will practice applying HIPAA regulations. Click here to download the Personal Health Record (PHR) to answer the first three questions.
I do think that HIPAA is more compliant in regards to electronic records because from its beginning concept it was known that health data was going digital. I think because of that knowledge it has been a main focus in its development through the years. Yes, I do believe that today HIPAA does protect my personal and healthcare records more so than 5 years ago because of the January 2013 HIPAA modifications. As stated in the article, these modifications implemented changes that increased the HIPAA sanctions and enforcements to include the business associates and subcontractors of the healthcare organizations. This is important because it stated that 20% of all breaches are caused by business associates. This means that they are now held to the
Even though hipaa violations are an important standard in preventing many individuals from causing several breaches of information from getting out, it is important to work on a strategies within several health care organizations that will work with the privacy rules regarding violation laws. “Jill Granger & Laura Cataldo (2013) reports When working in the healthcare setting, it is important to consult with the guidelines established by one's institution and to participate in any training programs to insure that the appropriate steps are being taken to maintain privacy. There are also a variety of additional resources available from the federal government and professional organizations to assist in the training process that may be especially
Yes, HIPPA is a form of privacy in counseling, due to it includes information for treatment, payment, health care operations, other uses and disclosures without client’s consent. Its goal is to assure the individuals’ health data is adequately protected while taking into account the flow of health information needed to offer and advance high-quality care, protect the public’s health, it likewise facilitates the customer to ascertain out how they may retrieve medical/mental health information. One statement that stood out “you would take into account the family time to report the abuse or carelessness. Do you feel this is dependable advice to allow the individuals or family knew or suspected child abuse/ neglect to report
One of the huge issues at the time of conception was the transition to electronic means of storage and transfer. At the time this technology was new, and not widely used as it is today. However with the implementation of HIPAA, it helped create a sense of trust and security that was not present before. By creating procedures to follow when storing and transferring information electronically, it educated many on how patient information was really being handled. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that HIPAA helped the adoption of electronic prescribing among physicians and other clinicians, overall adoption rates increasing from 5% to 18% (HIPAA: Impact). Essentially it helped usher in a new age of technology and assisted in its assimilation into the health industry, which provides far more convenience and utility than previous methods.
If any employee cannot be trusted with private information about a patient, then the employee needs to be fired. A fine should also be charged on the employee who violates this law because the hospital would suffer tremendously wit business. As for the manager, it is their responsibility to watch the other employees and to make sure they are following the rules of HIPAA. I do not believe the manager of the organization should be fired, but there should be a penalty for not completing their job appropriately. The manager should be given a deduction of pay, or even attend a management class to remind them of what their duties
3.) Under HIPAA, covered entities (healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouse) must comply with the privacy rules. A covered entity may develop its own privacy rules that would accommodate its own needs of protected health information (PHI) management but it most comply with the HIPAA guidelines. It is the responsibility of the entity to put in place a privacy official to oversee the policies, procedures and be on hand and available to be contacted in reference to the privacy rule. A patient should be given a privacy notice act at his/her health facility stating how their (PHI) is being used and to whom it will be shared. The covered entity should include in the notice their duty to assure the patients privacy as well as how and whom to contact if there is a complaint or they feel that their rights have been violated. As of 2009 the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) handles complaints that are made on privacy policies, procedure and practices of HIPAA covered entities.
I hope everyone is having a great Friday! After careful considerations and due-diligence into several different options - both cloud and in-house, I have attached a proposal for creating a 100% HIPAA environment for your dental practice. HIPAA is a tough thing to break down into simple terms and the proposal is very complex, as it combines one-time costs, yearly costs, and monthly costs. At the request of Charles, I am providing the proposal in its entirety to you in advance. I shall take a moment from here to go over a few points on the idiosyncrasies of both options and some food for thought on each.