The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996.
Title I of HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs.
Title II of HIPAA known as the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions, requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. It helps people keep their information private.
The Administration Simplification provisions also address the security and privacy of health data. The standards are meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in the U.S. health care system. necessary to prevent PHI from being used for non-health purposes.
Privacy Rule
The HIPAA privacy rule regulates the use and disclosure of certain information held by "covered entities" such as healthcare plans, insurers, and medical service providers. It establishes regulations for the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI). This is understood to include an individual's medical record or payment history.
We at FABscribe Transcription Services understand this and all our employees are made to sign the confidentiality/HIPAA agreement. The client may request a copy of the agreement.
Security Rule
The Security Rule complements the Privacy Rule. While the Privacy Rule pertains to all Protected Health Information (PHI) including paper and electronic, the Security Rule deals specifically with Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI). It lays out three types of security safeguards required for compliance: administrative, physical, and technical. For each of these types, the Rule identifies various security standards, and for each standard, it names both required and addressable implementation specifications. Required specifications must be adopted and administered as dictated by the Rule. Addressable specifications are more flexible.
Our servers and computers are configured to allow only authorized access and our processes ensure that an audit trail is established with unique identifiers for each transcriptionist and editor. We also utilize 128-bit SSL encryption technology and secure log-ins and passwords. CD drives and floppy drives are disabled as well.
This is just a brief summary of our processes. Please feel free to contact us for further details and specific queries.
If you are a transcriptionist or someone who works in healthcare industry, we would recommend HIPAA Web site www.hipaa.org for further information. In addition to HIPAA, we also recommend all transcriptionists to thoroughly understand and read about JCAHO guidelines as well as keep yourself updated with the latest AAMT standards. At the same time, we do agree that client preference is first and then any other guidelines.
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