Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Recent Developments in Mental Health Parity The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the associated rules have been in place now for most health plans and employers for 7 years. The Interim Final Rules were effective for health plan renewals on or after July 1, 2009, while the Final Rules became effective for renewals on or after July 1, 2014. So why an article on MHPAEA now in 2016? Because we continue to see many non-compliant plan designs on the market, including…

In 2005 the Patient Safety and Quality Act, or PSQIA, was established; the significance being that the Federal Government wanted to establish a commitment to creating a culture of patient safety and confidentiality. This act is incredibly involved; requiring doctors and physicians to undergo observations and evaluations to ensure that there is no malpractice of any kind. The PSQIA created Patient Safety Organizations to analyze, gather, and create a specialized conglomerate of information that…

The HIPPA privacy rule covers health information that is accustomed or unveiled for investigation reasons. Confidentiality rule also explains that the individual needs to be informed if the research uses their medical information. In concerns to research the rule keeps the privacy of personally identified health evidence, at the same time the researchers will be able to access the medical knowledge needed to conduct the research. The rule works for researches by acquiring, creating, and…

Protecting Electronic Personal Health Information in a Healthcare Setting The healthcare sector is faced by numerous challenges that have made it difficult to deliver health care services effectively. The challenges include patient’s expectations for improved and safe care, need for high quality of life aging society, shortage of healthcare professionals and high cost of compliance and new technological implementation. A survey done by the Ponemon Institute has shown that outdated means and…

The Health Insurance Probability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by Congress in 1996 in response to the infancy of health information technology and the modern flow of health information. The initial focus of the HIPAA was to protect health insurance coverage for workers and their families if they were to lose or change their jobs (Bowers, 2001) but, as technology continued to advance laws were also developed to protect patient information as it passed through a full spectrum of…

Disaster plans are a very important part of designing a security plan. Disasters come in several types. There are physical disasters like earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, and floods. Then you have non-physical such as data breaches and system failures. In order for us to complete our security plan we need to create a disaster plan to help us should an unfortunate event occur. The first step in creating a disaster plan is to conduct a business impact analysis (BIA). To conduct a BIA, we must…

information to ourselves. Confidentiality is the patient has the right to have medical information kept in private, their information is protected from unauthorized disclosures. When a health care provider receives information about a patient or from a patient they must not share it with anyone. The only circumstances where a health care provider can share patient information is if they need another professionals opinion on the patients…

The Challenge of Being HIPAA The Health Care industry has been undergoing enormous changes in every aspect. The rapid development of electronic medical records has demanded greater safety protocols and modification of privacy rules governing the use and disposition of patient medical information. The development of HIPPA Privacy Rule has established national standards to protect medical records and other health information. According to HHS.gov “The Hippa Privacy Rule has established…

Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the two important terms that need to be understood and followed properly include “use” and “disclosure”. The use of PHI involves the information to be utilized and communicated within the healthcare entity. The disclosure of PHI involves the information to be released to an individual or outside entity that follows a request. In general, HIPAA Privacy Rule protect individual’s rights to their PHI and holds covered entities accountable for providing an accounting…

make an intelligent choice to allow a medical procedure and/or treatment proposed by another to be performed on him or herself. In 1990 The Patient Self-Determination Act clarifies how patients has the privilege to settle on choices in regards to their own medical social insurance; including the privilege to acknowledge or decline health or surgical treatment. Documentation covers the patients and the specialist all in all to maintain a strategic distance from any lawful affirmations.…