HIPAA - Protecting Patient Privacy

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is comprised of two overarching parts--the Privacy Rule and Security Rule. The HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information and provides patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other important purposes. The Security Rule specifies a series of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

On January 25, 2013, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published it’s long awaited Final Rule entitled “Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules” (Omnibus Rule).  There are three (3) specific areas that physicians will need to focus on to comply with the new Omnibus Rule:

1. Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification policies and procedures;
2. Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP); and
3. Business Associate (BA) Agreements.

• *NEW*  HIPAA Resources for Members 
• *NEW* ACA In Touch Article HIPAA Gets an Update - What you Need to Know: Part I (March 2013)
• *NEW* ACA In Touch Article HIPAA Gets an Update - What you Need to Know: Part II (July 2013)
• *NEW* ACA In Touch Article HIPAA Gets an Update - What you Need to Know: Part III (September 2013)
• Disposing Patient Records and HIPAA
• ACANews Article--The Golden Rule of Privacy (April 2008)
• HHS HIPAA Frequently Asked Questions
• HIPAA and Social Media
• HHS HIPAA Resources
• HIPAA Training Materials