HIPAA Rules and Regulations - What Are They?

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that President Bill Clinton signed in August 21st, 1996. The main aim of the HIPAA rules and regulations is to present people with ways to keep their health insurance while keeping their personal details private and confidential. The law stands to secure any information people offer and helps control administrative costs through the healthcare industry. It is one of the small steps the government has taken to gear improvement of the system for health insurance.

Title IV defines clearly states that patient information should be protected. Therefore, all healthcare providers, organizations and health plans started by the government should comply with the HIPAA rules and regulations when using, storing, maintaining or transmitting healthcare information.

HIPAA rules and regulations concentrates on simplifying the health care system and securing patient information, therefore, title IV safeguards the protection of patient's medical information. It will be a federal crime if the laws within the HIPAA are not adhered to. The HIPAA rules and regulations also intend to decrease fraudulent activity and improve the data systems. Full compliance to the law will lead to saving an estimate of nine billion every year.

The steps taken by healthcare providers to comply with the law includes controlling access to medical information locked within offices through employing a system where a key card is used to access these offices. The only authorized people allowed to access these offices are the people working in those companies. Even so, there is limited access for the employees as they should be properly trained in order to do so.

The HIPAA rules and regulations grant some exceptions to access to patient private information. People should familiarize themselves with exceptional cases when their private information can be accessed without their authority. Those exceptions allow for legal disclosure of their private information without the protection of HIPAA rules and regulations.

It is very important for people to document all the conversations they have with their healthcare providers about breach of privacy. Paper documents related to any of the concerns will be best held on to by the patient. In case of fraud, contact a state insurance commissioner to report the case from private insurance organizations. Medicare and Medicaid programs are there to act on any fraud cases that might be reported.

The privacy rule of HIPAA stipulates that a patient has the right to get a notice from any healthcare provider clearing house, the right to ask for a copy of the guidelines from their healthcare provider, the right to ask for any changes to incorrect information in their records or add information they feel should be added, the right to ask for private communication and right to complain.

About the Author