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Keep me informed: HIPAA Issues

Health Insurance Portability and Acountability Act (HIPAA)

Physicians, as well as other providers of health care and insurers, should be preparing for a new regulatory environment in which federal authorities apply heightened scrutiny to patient record handling and billing practices. 

Mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to as “HIPAA”, the new federal regulations govern the transmission of claims for billing purposes (the Transmission Standards), and the privacy of patient information (Privacy Standards). Both of these regulations require that healthcare providers review and change their patient record and claims handling procedures.

HIPAA Privacy Standards:
In addition to mandating “how” information is to be exchanged between the provider and the insurer, HIPAA mandates the establishment of new standards governing privacy of individually identifiable health information that is electronically transmitted or electronically maintained by health care providers, such as physician, laboratory, or dental offices.

Healthcare practitioners will need to comply with the Privacy Standards by February 2003. Failure to do so may result in civil penalties for EACH infraction of EACH HIPAA standard that is violated. Moreover, HIPPA provides for criminal penalties if a patient record is knowingly released for a purpose other than as permitted by the patient’s authorization and consent.

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