Medical records are meant to be kept confidential. They reflect a patient’s mental and physical being. No one would be comfortable knowing that these medical details are available to anyone and everyone. To safeguard these records, the Government has introduced the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This act ensures that health records are kept private and confidential. It also states what part of the records can be shared and what cannot. The Act was introduced in 1996 to protect the health insurances of workers and their families while they are between jobs or have lost their jobs.

Employees at a medical unit or a hospital need to be trained to be able to understand HIPAA. The Act has various clauses that need to be understood in-depth. More importantly there are charges if the rules are violated. HIPAA training is a necessity for anyone employed in the medical field. At the training employees are made to understand how to handle such delicate information.

– The function of HIPAA is to protect the privacy of patients and their Protected Health Information (PHI). The Act is for the benefit of anyone who has health insurance. An employee needs to be trained to be able to explain to a patient about the Act.

– HIPAA training explains to healthcare employees the different rules that are in place and need to be adhered to for PHI. For instance, they cannot discuss a patient’s medical history in public and they need to discard PHI files correctly. These rules may sound simple, but any chance of violation amounts to a lot of trouble for the employers and the employees.

– Healthcare employees are also instructed about disclosures – an extremely important segment. Medical history cannot be disclosed to any entity or any other person, sometimes even to another family member without the patient’s consent. The patient’s consent needs to be filed and maintained for future records.

– It is absolutely imperative that a patient’s health is discussed behind closed doors. Under no circumstances can any patient’s medical situation be discussed in a public area or with an unauthorized person.

– Any kind of paperwork regarding a patient’s medical history cannot be kept lying around for anyone to see. It needs to be filed and kept away for future reference. If the paperwork is not required, it needs to be discarded in a paper shredder.

– While working on a patient’s medical records on a computer, the screen needs to be titled away from the vision of any other person. While away from the computer, you need to password protect the machine.

The rules are strict; this is only because the information held at medical units and hospitals is sensitive. No one can be irresponsible with such data and neither can it be lost or stolen. A proper understanding of how these rules and regulations have come into place and need to be abided to is given while training for HIPAA. The Government has created such acts for the betterment of the nation, it is our duty to make sure we make the most of it.

For more information, please visit our hipaa training website.

For more information, please visit our hipaa training website http://www.hipaaexams.com/hipaa-training-for-healthcare-professionals.html

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

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Keywords: hospital,Health Insurance ,health plans ,medical,HIPAA Training