HIPPA is an abbreviation of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and was introduced by the congress in 1996. This rule assures that a person is given good and quality health coverage even amid jobs. As soon as a person quits a job, he looses the insurance cover completely and the new assurance company considers illness if any as pre-existing and gives a very low coverage or nothing, prior this law. For instance, consider a person who suffers from diabetes and is under medication, the new company will consider this as pre-existing and will not pay for medicines.
The main goal of HIPPA law is to make health care simpler and maintain the security of patient's medical information. If you feel that your health care provider has breached privacy, you can certainly take it legal provided all are in records and it can be reported to the state insurance commissioner.
There are different circumstances under which the law is infringed. The health care provider or the insurance company might violate HIPPA without even knowing what it is. At times there could be a valid reason for going against the same and not due to negligence. HIPPA violation due to unruly slackness, but corrected within a period of time receives a high penalty and willful negligence not at all corrected and repeated often is given the maximum sentence. Whatever it is when there is a breach of any kind that comes under this act; record all conversation.
A case can also be filed under criminal penalty if the health care provider or the insurance company discloses your personal health information knowingly for money. Selling it to a third party for any reason or for personal gains which can cause harm is offensive. They face a fine of up to $50,000 and detention for a year, but however no private cause of action is taken against the person who disobeyed.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, was introduced in 1996 to protect consumers’ rights regarding their health information. The HIPAA is comprised of the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Patient Safety Rule. The Privacy Rule protects the privacy of individuals and their health information. The Security Rule dictates certain security standards for all computerized health information nationwide. The Patient Safety Rule protects health information that is collected and analyzed in order to improve patient safety. In this article, we will go over how the HIPAA works and how you can use it to your advantage.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a bill that was created by the United States Congress in 1996 and was enforced in 1997. The reason behind the creation of this act was to prevent abuse, fraud and waste of health insurance, health delivery, and other aspects of health. On top of that, the hope was that the level of health care would increase because of the rules set out by the law. It states the rules that needs to be adhered when it comes to health insurance, and the legal complications that would arise if the rules are not followed.
HIPAA is broken down into two parts. The first is what was mentioned above. A common scenario for people is that they have a job for years, but suddenly, they lose it for whatever reason. In the past, employers would just stop paying their health insurance and suddenly these people would be without health care. What HIPAA guaranteed was the safety of a person’s health insurance if they lost their job while they were looking to get a new one. On top of that, it ensures that patients with preexisting issues are still given some sort of health insurance.
The second part of HIPAA is where the rules have been laid regarding abuse of the health care. The passing of this bill has led to a steep fall in fraud and scamming in the field of health care. However, that wasn’t the most important part of HIPAA. More important than the fraud control and the other new measures introduced, was the creation of a system in which health care documents could be passed electronically.
There is nothing more petrifying than someone gaining access to your healthcare files. It is no one else’s business what is or is not wrong with you. Therefore, what HIPAA did in its second part was create an acceptable method of transport of these files electronically. The motive behind this was that not only would a patient’s medical records be safe, but on top of that, it would promote a more effective and efficient health care system as it would encourage the use of this electronic data interchange.
Despite the fact that this was an amazing idea, the common consensus is that with every great idea, there has to be something that is bad on the flip side. One of the largest issues was the cost of adopting the new methods. Due to all the extra paperwork and filing that needed to be done, private practices had to hire more help to ensure all the paperwork got done. Economically, this is never good for a small business, so many small medical practioners were not very pleased with these changes.
All in all, HIPAA did something that was very important. Patients were guaranteed health insurance and even had some sort of a guarantee for insurance if they had a pre-existing medical condition. Also, their files and documents were safe when they were being transported electronically. Despite the fact that it cost money, the abuse that was going on in the healthcare world needed to be combated. HIPAA was able to set aside the particular rules that needed to be followed to ensure the efficient functioning of the world of health care. It has definitely worked.