The United States Congress enforced the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996 in order to safeguard the confidential medical information of patients. This act has made healthcare organizations throughout the country take patient records very seriously. Hospitals have placed safeguards and formed policies to make sure that patient information remains confidential. Physical as well as technical safeguards are put in place to prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing, using, or sharing the records.

To enable the healthcare organizations to be able to comply with the guideline of HIPAA, those employees who deal with patient records on a daily basis must be made aware of this act. Employers are placing great emphasis on hiring employees who know and understand the rules and regulations of HIPAA. To keep up with this demand, HIPAA training programs have been made available for employees. Healthcare employees, especially those who deal with patient records must seriously think about undergoing this training.

Here are three reasons why HIPAA training was started.

– HIPAA training is a way by which healthcare employees can become aware about HIPAA and all its aspects. It enables them to deal with patients and their questions correctly and professionally. When employees are trained and certified, the patients can rest assured that their private information is in good hands.

– Training ensures that the employees will handle the medical records of patients in the correct manner. In addition they also learn how to make back-ups in case information is lost, and how to properly dispose information when it is not needed anymore. When an employee know the proper way to deal with important data, it becomes much easier for the primary caregivers to access and use the data to save lives. This is only possible when proper training is given to employees.

– The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a federal law and hence some of its guidelines and clauses difficult for the employees to understand. There are so many procedures, policies, and exclusions, that it is easy for people confused without proper training. HIPAA training explains all this in a language that the common man understands. It also prevents people from misinterpreting the act. Real life scenarios are used so the trainees get practical as well as theoretical knowledge.

Nowadays, healthcare employees are placing more emphasis on hiring trained employees and getting their previous employees trained about HIPAA. Other than the medical record technicians and those who deal with patient records daily, doctors and nurses are also supposed to know the details of this act. Since a lot of patient information is passed over phones and other such means, it is a good idea for medical call centers and medical transcription services to provide HIPAA training for their employees too. Health care organizations are bound to seek out services from those companies whose employees are HIPAA trained.

Seeing as how important HIPAA training is and what an impact it makes on the health care industry, more and more employees are undergoing training these days.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Training website.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Training website http://www.hipaaexams.com/hipaa-training.asp

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

Category: Advice
Keywords: HIPAA Training