The Pros And Cons Of HIPAA

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 1996, which was originally proposed to assure health insurance coverage after leaving a job. Congress felt the need to add a section to the bill in order to save money; therefore, the Administration Simplification section was included in the bill. The health care industry was in agreeance with the ideas of Congress because standard record formats, code sets, and identifiers in standardized electronic transactions were required. The official bill was passed August 21, 1996. There are two main focuses of HIPAA, which are the privacy and security of the patient’s health information and the covered entities. Being that Congress didn’t provide legislation defining the privacy and security
December 28, 2000, the rule became final and it stated that it applied to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and certain health care providers, present standards with respect to the rights of individuals who are the subjects of this information, and the authorized and required uses and disclosures of this information. (Standards for Privacy of Individual Identifiable Health Information, 2000) On March 27, 2002, there were modifications to the Privacy Rule and they were made final August 14, 2002. The final modifications added to the rule that it would protect the health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically. The Privacy Rule requires safeguards that are appropriate, in order to protect the privacy of personal health information and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without authorization from the patient. This section of HIPAA, also gives the patient their rights over their health information, which includes the rights to examine, understand, and receive a copy of their health records, and to request that corrections be made if any are