Health Insurance Portability And Accountability

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
Caitlin Morissette
Introduction to Health Care
April 8th, 2014
Dennis Matricardi

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 protects the right to privacy to all individuals medical records and health data. Title I of HIPAA (1996) protects health insurance coverage for workers and families when they change or lose their jobs, and Title II establishes national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. This set of laws helps to prevent health care fraud
Every health care employee needs to know the basic sets of rules contained within this very important piece of legislation, because violating these rules can negatively affect his or her continued employment as well as the security and dignity of the patients. The first and most important set of rules to know are those pertaining to the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI). PHI includes any information concerning health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care that can be linked to an individual. Any part of a patient’s medical record or payment history falls under the protection of the Privacy Rule and requires a patient-signed disclosure form in order to release any form of PHI to a provider, health insurance plan, or employer. As of January 2013, HIPAA was updated to include the Omnibus Rule; this rule changed the protection of PHI from “indefinite” to “50 years after death” and made penalties for violation of PHI privacy more
According to the Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS), the most frequent issues and violations were for misuse and unauthorized disclosures of PHI, failure to protect health information, lack of patient access to health information, using or disclosing more than the minimum necessary PHI, or failure to implement safeguards of electronic PHI. In order to remain in voluntary compliance of HIPAA (1996), any entity found to be in violation of the rules and regulations would be required to take corrective action against the employee or employees responsible for the violation. This can effect the management of employees, resources, patients and health care in a positive way so long as care is taken to ensure compliance with HIPAA (1996). Remaining in voluntary compliance with the rules will ensure that the particular entity is an efficient and ethical part of the health care system in