7 HIPAA Rules Pharmacy Technicians Should Know

1. Pharmacy technicians are responsible for maintaining set privacy standards, in order to protect the health information of the patients under them.

2. They should take proper HIPAA training for healthcare professionals and be acquainted with the policies and procedures to protect PHI (Protected Health Information) which includes patients' names, addresses, birth details, medical reports, prescriptions, etc.

3. They should also ensure that the disclosure made by them is appropriate. While giving out the information, they need to ensure that they are maintaining the privacy rights of the insured person.

4. The information must only be provided to the authorized person of the patient's party.

5. They should also keep the insured person informed about his or her rights for privacy. This is done on paper, which is signed by the insured person and / or his or her authorized guardian.

6. As pharmacy technicians under HIPAA, they should know how to interact with any family member, friend and caretaker of the insured person.

7. Pharmacy technicians are also not authorized to make any decision about the medication of the insured person. Since interference in the medical prescription of the patient can cause an adverse effect on the health, this is the main reason the technicians are advised to follow exactly what the doctors say.

So if you are in this profession, and not taken your HIPAA certification course yet, it is high time you go for it. There are many online service providers who will make this process easy as they have packages especially designed for all kinds of healthcare professionals including pharmacy technicians.