HIPAA: Protecting Our Privacy

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HIPAA Identity theft has always been in the back of my mind whenever I use my debit card but I wasn’t too concerned about my health information until I learned about HIPAA. It is a very important set of rules and standards that protects our privacy. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA is a statute endorsed by the U.S. Congress in 1996. It offers protections for many American workers which improves portability and continuity of health insurance coverage. The seven titles of the final law are Title I - Health care Access , Portability, Title II - Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse; administrative simplification; Medical Liability Reform; Title III – Tax-related Health Provisions; Title IV – Application and Enforcement of Group Health Plan Requirements; Title V – Revenue Offsets; Title XI – General Provisions, Peer Review, Administrative Simplification; Title XXVII – Assuring Portability, Availability and Renewability of Health Insurance Coverage. (Krager & Krager, 2008) The central portion addresses the portability and continuity of care and the prevention of fraud and protection of privacy. Group health plans may not deny any individual coverage because of preexisting medical condition for more than 12 to 18 months after an individual’s enrollment date. Title I allows individuals to reduce the exclusion period by the amount of coverage time before enrolling without breaks in coverage for over 62 days. Also, Title I provides special enrollment rights to individuals who lose their health coverage under certain while circumstances such as separation, divorce, death, loss of employment and reduction in hours. (http://hipaa.ohio.gov/whitepapers/title1healthcareaccess.PDF) Because of the major infl... ... middle of paper ... ...lion. Penalties are adjusted for violations corrected with the required time period. (AMA, n.d) Works Cited AMA. (n.d). http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/solutions-managing-your-practice/coding-billing-insurance/hipaahealth-insurance-portability-accountability-act/hipaa-violations-enforcement.page April, 2002: http://hipaa.ohio.gov/whitepapers/title1healthcareaccess.PDF Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (n.d). https://www.cms.gov/TransactionCodeSetsStands/ Jeffries, M. (n.d). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act . Retrieved from http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/healthcare/insurance/hipaa3.htm Krager, D., & Krager, C. H. (2008). HIPAA for Health Care Professionals. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d). http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/srsummary.html

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