The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that was passed as a federal law in 1996 is a very important piece of health care legislation that affects all Americans. The primary objective of HIPAA is to provide continuous health coverage to individuals and their families even if they lose their jobs. Apart from this HIPAA also aims to protect all confidential information of patients from unauthorized access.

Before this federal law was passed there were several instances of this protected information been misused for commercial purposes. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has very stringent penalties for non compliances and violations of the Act.

5 Important Aspects Of HIPAA Healthcare Regulations

1. Patients provide a lot of confidential information to doctors, nurses and other health care providers who form part of their treatment process. This information is usually stored electronically in computers. Apart from been stored the protected electronically, this information can also be transmitted from one health care provider to the next for treatment.

2. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act stipulates that there should be enough safeguards in place to help protect the confidential information of patients. Computers and other electronic equipment that are used in storing and transmitting this information will need to be password protected. This will help prevent any unauthorized access.

3. The personal privacy of the individual is safeguarded as all their health records are kept confidential. If the protected information is stored as physical records, it will need to be kept in a safe and secure place.

4. All employees of covered entities will need to be provided adequate training in all aspects of HIPAA healthcare regulations. This will help in better compliance of the act. It is the responsibility of the employer to provide training to all employees who would be accessing the protected information of patients.

5. It is the obligation of all employees who have access to this confidential information to protect all medical records. Non compliance of the various regulations of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act will attract strict penalties that include fines and imprisonment. The penalties can be both civil and criminal depending on the extent of the violation.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act aim to prevent any kind of medical care fraud and have enough safeguards in place to ensure its compliance. Most of the violations that happen are unintentional as the employees who handle the protected information of patients are unaware of the provisions of HIPAA.

There should be administrative, physical and technical safeguards that need to be provided to all medical records of patients. All these measures will ensure security of the protected information and prevent any unauthorized access to it.

There are various standards that are established by HIPAA and these need to be followed by all covered entities. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has been amended many times since its introduction in 1996 and employees who handle the protected information of patients will need to be aware about them for better compliance.

For more information, please visit our HIPAA Training website.

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

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

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