HIPAA: Impact the Delivery of Human Services
July 12, 2008
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed on 21st August 1996 by the U.S President Bill Clinton. Most healthcare insurance companies and providers are to remain to the HIPAA regulation guidelines by October 2002 and October 2003 for smaller health plans. If you are in the healthcare industry, you have probably heard some rumblings about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, calmly referred to as HIPAA. The word is your medical practice will have to be HIPAA compliant by April 2003, but you are not exactly sure what this act mandates or how to accomplish it. In very basic terms, HIPAA has two primary components to which hospitals, health plans, and healthcare
"Clearinghouses," and healthcare providers must conform: Administrative simplification, which calls for use of the same computer language industry-wide; Privacy protection, which requires healthcare providers to take reasonable measures to protect patients' written, oral, and electronic information. Congress passed HIPAA in an effort "to protect the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information.” Additionally, lawmakers "sought to reduce the administrative costs and burden associated with healthcare by standardizing data and facilitating transmission of many administrative and financial transactions." HIPAA consultants say the new regulations should save the healthcare industry money in the long run, provide improved security of patient information, and allow patients to have better access to their own healthcare information. The HIPAA law is a multi-step approach that is geared to improve the health insurance system. One approach of the HIPAA r ...