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What is HIPAA?The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) became public law August 21, 1996. It was a federal bi-partisan bill based on the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill. The primary goal of the law is to make it easier for people to keep health insurance, and help the industry control administrative costs.
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What is Administrative Simplification?Administrative Simplification is defined in the Title II of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The goal of administrative simplification is to reduce health care administrative costs and promote quality and continuity of care by facilitating electronic data interchange (EDI). HIPAA establishes standards for 10 electronic health care transactions, national code sets, and unique identifiers for providers, health plans, employers and individuals. It also establishes standards for ensuring the security of electronic health care transactions. Read More
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What are the main components of HIPAA? Click here to view HIPAA Components.
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Who is required to comply with HIPAA regulations?Covered entities and the entities with whom they share Protected Health Information (PHI) must comply with HIPAA. A covered entity is:
- A health plan.
- A health care clearinghouse.
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A health care provider who transmits protected health information in electronic form in connection with a transaction covered by the HIPAA transactions regulation. (HHS Regulations Definitions 160.103)
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What are the deadlines for HIPAA Compliance?Click here to view the Compliance Timetable.
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What are the goals of the HIPAA regulations?At the core of the new regulations are requirements to systemize, expedite and protect the electronic transfer of healthcare information. These include:
- standards for the electronic transmission of financial and administrative information
- standard codes for identifying medical diagnoses and procedures
- a 10-digit numeric ID known as a National Provider Identifier issued to every provider organization
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a nine-digit numeric ID issued to each employer to use in all HIPAA-governed administrative and financial transactions
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thirty-four specific security measures that providers must adopt in order to protect patient-identifiable healthcare information
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additional rules that will specify how and under what circumstances, healthcare information can be used and shared
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