Summary of HIPAA

Summary of HIPAA

This paper will examine the privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 . HIPAA privacy rules are complicated and extensive, and set forth guidelines to be followed by health care providers and other covered entities such as insurance carriers and by consumers. HIPAA is very specific in its requirements regarding the release of information, but is not as specific when it comes to the manner in which training and policies are developed and delivered within the health care industry. This paper will discuss how HIPAA affects a patient's access to their medical records, how and under what circumstances personal health information can be released to other entities for purposes not related to health care, the requirements regarding written privacy policies for covered entities, the training requirements for medical office employees and the consequences for not following the policy.

Patient Rights

The first area of concern in HIPAA is the protection of the private health care information for patients. In protecting the rights of patients, however, HIPAA policies require a certain level of diligence on the part of the patients. Every patient has the right to view and get a copy of their medical records and other health information (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). There are a few conditions under which a covered entity can decide not to provide the information to a patient, such as if they believe that providing the information would endanger the patient or someone else. However, in general, records will be provided to a patient within 30 days of the request. This can be extended for an additional 30 days if the patient is given a reason. Patie...

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... Health Information Privacy For Consumers. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from U. S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/index.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Understanding HIPAA. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. (2005, May 11). Workforce Privacy Training (HIPAA). Retrieved April 22, 2009, from Privacy/Data Protection Project: http://privacy.med.miami.edu/glossary/xd_workforce_training.htm

WikiAnswers. (n.d.). What is required if an employee doesn't follow the HIPAA Policy? Retrieved April 23, 2009, from WikiAnswers.com: http://www.wikianswers.com/Q/What_is_required_if_an_employee_doesn't_follow_the_HIPAA_privacy_policy