The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed by Congress in 1996. It ensures health care benefits for employees as well as covers the confidentiality of patient information. This ensures that the system is fair to everyone who should happen to be a part of it.

The HIPAA is basically broken down into three main parts. Here's what you need to know:

Part I was implemented to ensure that employees would not be denied medical coverage by their employers if they changed jobs or moved to a different facility where another plan was available.

This also covers several amendments to other acts such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code. It also protects employees that may have a preexisting condition. This prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage completely to the worker. While they still have the option of applying limits to the coverage available, it cannot be denied completely, which is a great benefit for employees.

Part II was design to specify and regulate abuse and insurance fraud having both criminal and civil actions brought against anyone that commits these acts. It also makes paper work for the health care industry easier, allowing them to be more efficient.

Part III, The Privacy Rule, was added later, in 2003. This amendment to the HIPAA dictates who can and cannot view a patients private information. It implements security measures that must be followed to ensure confidentiality of this information. Whenever a patient visits their doctors office they are required to sign a copy of the Privacy Rule stating that they understand the standards set forth regarding how their information will be handled.

If you work in an office that has access to patient information you must ensure that your data base has security measures in place such as a firewall and individual logins and passwords for all individuals that will have access. If you need to transmit patient information to another office or individual, you will need to ensure that the information is encrypted to keep the information private 100 percent of the time. This is a relatively simple process to implement, although it will cost a bit of money.

If the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is violated in any way, the person or persons involved can be fined from $100.00 up to a maximum of $2500.00. If a violation does occur you will be given 30 days to correct the issue. If the issue isn't corrected, violators may be imprisoned.

This is the main reason that health care and insurance workers are required to take the HIPAA course and receive their certificate. This will lessen the chance of any violations occurring. It's a great idea to have health care and insurance workers be certified - it's better for everyone, including their patients.

Learning about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and implementing the rules into your office is an absolute must. Keep yourself, your employees and your clients or patients safe.