HIPPA Provisions

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is of major important to patients because it is the first-ever set of federal privacy standards for protecting patient's medical records and other health information which they may provide to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, other health care providers, and to health plans (Protection, 2003). It was developed by the Department of Health and Human Services, and provides patients with access to their medical records and gives them more control over how their medical information is used and to whom it is disclosed. The standards represent a uniform federally mandated privacy protection for consumers across the entire country. State laws providing additional protection to consumers are not affected by this new rule, because it provides a basic protection: state protections apply in addition to HIPAA.

HIPAA includes provisions to encourage electronic transactions and requires new safeguards to protect the security and the confidentiality of patient health information (Protection, 2003). The regulation covers health plans, health care clearing houses, and other health care providers who conduct certain financial and administrative transactions which involve patient medical information such as enrollment, billing and eligibility verification, electronically.

HIPAA limits the ways in which health plans, pharmacies, hospitals and other covered entities can use patients' personal medical information (Pr

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nce, to treatment for a particular disease, or to employment. The major burden and cost will fall on the health care providers who must institute administrative changes and convert to electronic data systems, but once this is done, the process will be much simplified. For the patient, they will need to give permission for use of their personal medical data, but this should not be much of a burden. Whether or not they access their medical records to check for discrepancies will be up to them. For nurses, it will be mainly a matter of not talking about patients within the hearing of other people, keeping patient paperwork where it cannot be seen by people who should not be looking at it, securing computers, and generally being more carful in their communication habits. HIPAA does set new rules and restrictions which limit the use of patient information for marketing purposes. Pharmacies, health plans and other covered entities must obtain permission from a patient before disclosing their information for marketing. Confidentiality protections are cumulative, and HIPAA provides the floor upon which state laws provide additional protection. Patients can request that their doctors, health plans and other covered entities take

Category: Medical - H