The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that was passed in 1996 was initially created to ensure that employees who shift jobs do not have to lose their insurance and that they can continue to have medical insurance for themselves and their family. The other important provision of the act is pertaining to protection of confidential information of patients.

There are various people who would be able to access patient information and this can be misused for marketing purposes or other fraudulent purposes. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has five different components that make it easier to implement the law.

5 Components of HIPAA

1. The first component of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is Title I. It helps deal with health care access, portability of medical cover of employees and protection of insurance cover for individuals who have pre-existing illness.

2. The second component known as Title II deals with fraud, abuse and helps in simplifying the administration of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. All health care providers make use of this component the most as it contains the important provisions of privacy and security rules of HIPAA.

3. Title III which deals with the third component of HIPAA deals with how employers handle medical savings accounts and other insurance related issues.

4. The fourth component known as Title IV deals with the group health plan requirements that enable individuals to carry their previous medical cover to their current job.

5. The fifth component known as Title V deals with revenue offsets. Tax deductions are also included in this component.

The health care organizations must have various administrative safeguards in place so that the protected information is not used for any other purpose. It will also ensure that individuals who are authorized to access the personal information of patients will be able to do so after they have fulfilled some conditions. These conditions could be pertaining to using passwords or any specific software to access the protected information.

As all information is stored electronically it is important that there are enough safeguards in place to help prevent theft and abuse of information.

All computers and other electronic equipment used for storage of patient information should be in a secure place that is not accessible for everyone. The workstations where all this information is available can also be locked to help prevent unauthorized entry. Any other safety measures that will ensure that the information is protected can also be taken.

Apart from this all health care providers would need to have various internal policies and processes in place so that all requirements of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act are fulfilled and chances of penalty for violation are greatly reduced. There can be internal audits for this purpose and the compliance officers who are appointed can ensure that all recent changes in HIPAA are also brought to the notice of employees. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has been a great piece of legislature that has managed to change the way health care services are provided to individuals.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA website.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA website http://www.hipaaexams.com

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

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