Health Insurance Portability Act Of 1996 Essay

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 changed the way patient information is handled. It benefits the healthcare industry, patients, and physicians by creating a standard for handling patient information that helps to ensure privacy and improve efficiency. How has HIPAA benefited the healthcare industry? The main benefit that it provides is a minimum standard of how a patients private information is to be handled. This makes it easier on medical facilities by cutting out confusion as to how this information should be handled, disposed of and in what ways it can be released. The privacy act helps to protect the health of the public by providing for the release of personal information when it is necessary to maintain the health of the public (such as with the recording of STD’s in order to track the spread).
It gives them greater control of their medical records, and lets them decide how their personal information will be used. Plus it safeguards their information and puts boundaries in place for who can and cannot legally have access to their medical records. HIPAA also provides standard consequences for healthcare workers who mishandle a patient’s information. This helps the patient to feel that their privacy is more secure. Finally, How does the physician benefit from HIPAA? There are several ways. First physicians are able to save valuable time and money by the use of up to date medical recording and billing technologies which are allowed for in HIPAA under the administrative simplification provisions. These provisions set rules and standards for how medical records can be handled, shared and disposed of electronically, just as it sets standards for paper records. Physicians can also feel safeguarded from lawsuits as long as they have followed the standards for handling patient information set forth by HIPAA.