The privacy of patient information was protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and there are various rules and regulations that stipulate how this confidential information should be handled.

HIPAA enables patients to have a lot of control on how their health information is accessed and shared among various health care providers. The confidential information that is provided by patients can be in any medium (oral, written or anything else) and this should be safeguarded.

Top 6 Things You Did Not Know About HIPAA Privacy

1. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has stipulated certain health care providers and insurance companies as covered entities. The covered entities would be able to exchange information of patients for the purpose of treatment. However there should be enough safeguards in place to ensure that the information that is exchanged is not misused for any other purpose.

2. Emails, fax, telephone conversations, written communication and any other method that is considered suitable can be used for exchange of information between the covered entities.

3. If the patient has not given permission to the physician to share confidential medical information with their families and friends the health care provider should not do so. However if there is no such restriction imposed by the patient then the physician will be allowed to share information with family and friends. It is important to remember that the information so share should only be limited to providing care to the patient.

4. Law enforcement agencies would be able to access confidential information from health care providers for assistance with an investigation. Before providing the required information to the law enforcement agency officer, the health care provider must verify the identity of the officer who has made such a request.

5. There are also certain restrictions regarding the release of confidential information of patients who are deceased to their family members. The information can be disclosed only if there is a legal authorization or if it is to be used for the treatment of a patient related to the deceased.

6. There are certain physicians and health care providers who are exempt from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Health care providers with less than 10 employees and who maintain all patient information in written medium is exempt.

All steps should be taken to ensure that the confidential information of patients is safeguarded and not misused. The health care providers should be able to access only that information that is necessary for providing the patients with the best possible care.

The employees who will be accessing patient information should be trained about the various privacy rules and regulations. This will ensure that the safeguards that are to be followed are complied with. If there is wrongful disclosure of information of patients the health care providers can be penalized either with fines or imprisonment or both. The HIPAA guidelines need to be followed and health care employees should be educated about them.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has various additional safeguards that ensure that all confidential information of patients is safeguarded and protected at all times.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Privacy Rule website.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Privacy Rule website http://www.hipaaprivacyrule.com

Author Bio: For more information, please visit our HIPAA Privacy Rule website.

Category: Medical Business
Keywords: health care organizations ,HIPAA,Health Insurance ,HIPAA Compliant