Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA)

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What is Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPPA)?
Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) also known as the Kassebaum-Kennedy Act is not just a fanciful name, but it’s a legislation that was enacted on August 21, 1996, by Congress to protect human rights in regards to the confidentiality of their personal and medical information and also in alleviating the administrative cost. This legislation forbids discriminating by insurance companies and other organizations that may result in patient’s health status and information being compromise. This also helps to heighten the health care system by making it more effective, more trust worthy, easier to understand and most of all less expensive.
In further support,
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HIPAA also safeguard the confidentiality of employee and also ensure that health care is more liable for expenses and most of all reducing fraud and waste by constraining the administrative loads of health care, in standardizing electronic transmission in the financial and administrative department. Donna Bowers (2001) suggest that by implementing standard business and system formats we will be able to streamline the processing of health care claims, and reduce the volume of paperwork required by the U.S. health care system. In addition, this does not only benchmark a continuous streamline but it also allow a free flow of service and decrease wait period for patients. Bowers (2011) added that in order to make the public feel more secure with electronic transmission of data, the government had developed privacy and security rules to complement the transaction …show more content…
Its major focus is driven towards health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers. HIPAA does not apply to everyone or any entities that often share, use, or keep patient health information. Gartee (2011) disclosed that the privacy rule also establishes requirements for all covered entities with regard to their non-employee business associates, whose relationship with covered entities requires sharing protected health information (PHI). Interestingly, some healthcare workers and health benefits do not always perform their duties by themselves. Else, they are drawn to participate within different types of services that are administrated by other businesses. This can impact the distribution of patient’s confidentiality, thus building a barrier between the patient and health care worker and providers. Gartee (2011) Added that HIPAA also applies to all forms of patients’ protected health information, whether electronic, written, or oral. In contrast, the Security Rules only protected health information that is in electronic

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