HIPAA
What is HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) went into effect as part of the Social Security Act of 1996 in order to protect health care coverage for individuals who have lost or changed their jobs, and to ensure security of electronic transfers of electronic protected health information (ePHI).
Hospitals, private practices, dental offices, clinics, pharmacies, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and any other covered entity or person handling ePHI have all had to work earnestly to achieve and maintain compliance with the extensive set of strict requirements associated with HIPAA. In a time of increasingly costly and frequent data breaches, it is more important than ever to provide assurances when it comes to protecting vendor data and patient ePHI.
HIPAA compliance is often implemented 1 of 3 ways:
The 5 Main HIPAA Rules to Understand
1. Privacy Rule
The privacy rule protects the ePHI and medical records of individuals by setting limits and conditions on the various uses and disclosures that can and cannot be made without patient authorization.
2. Security Rule
The security rule defines and regulates the standards, methods, and procedures related to the protection of ePHI with regard to storage, accessibility, and transmission. The 3 safeguard levels of security are broken into administrative, technical, and physical.
3. Transaction Rule
HIPAA does not require physicians to conduct transactions electronically, but if a physician practice does conduct any the transactions named under HIPAA, the organization must submit the transactions according to the HIPAA standards. The transaction codes ensure safety, accuracy, and security of medical records or ePHI.
4. Identifiers Rule
HIPAA uses three unique identifiers for covered entities conducting HIPAA-regulated administrative and financial transactions. These identifiers are the National Provider Identifier (NPI), National Health Plan Identifier (NHI), and the Standard Unique Employer Identifier Number (EIN).
5. Enforcement Rule
The Enforcement Rule expands the rules and establishes criminal and civil penalties for any violations of privacy and security required by HIPAA. Covered entities and their business associates must enforce rules for the application of security and privacy requirements, accounting disclosure requirements, sales and marketing restrictions, accounting disclosure requirements, and the enforcement of all security requirements across business associates’ contracts as well
In conclusion
These rules are a lot to digest. HIPAA compliance is important and required for any
covered organization, but with all the hustle and bustle of a modern health care
organization, meeting these requirements frequently becomes a check-box exercise, leaving your organization and patient data vulnerable to breaches.
Not only will this result in fines and legal consequences, but also lasting reputational damage if and when a vulnerability is exposed. The bottom line: making HIPAA compliance a priority is essential.
The twist: HIPAA compliance does not have to cost you an arm and a leg.
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