What is HIPAA Law in Healthcare IT Solution and What Does It Regulate?

In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA). It is a statute that provides protection and anonymity to keep the personal records of patients secure. Digicom Healthcare solutions work according to HIPAA policies and procedures, so that they offer the right services to every patient.

The Act has a total of five titles or sections:

• Title I of HIPAA is intended to maintain health care benefits for those whose occupations have changed or lost. It prohibits insurance insurers from refusing to compensate customers who already have disabilities or disorders and stops them from imposing lifetime limits.
  
  
• Title II of health and human services HIPAA seeks to guide the Department of Human Services and Health of the United States to standardize electronic health transaction management throughout the world. It calls on organizations, which follow the privacy regulations laid down by the HHS, to secure electronic access to patient health records.
  
  
• Title III of the HIPAA is pertaining to tax-related regulations and general instructions for medical treatment. The rules and regulations are made to give some advice on how to avoid the most common HIPAA violations.
  
  
• More health care reform, including legislation pertaining to people with prior diseases and conditions and those requesting continuing coverage, is specified in Title IV of HIPAA.
  
  
• Title V of the HIPAA contains rules pertaining to insurance undertakings and care for income tax purposes for those who lost their nationality.

In IT circles, people referring to compliance with HIPAA most of the time say compliance with Title II. Often recognized as criteria for 'Administrative Simplification' requires meeting the above-mentioned conditions of HIPAA compliance:

• National Provider Identifier Standard. This calls for each healthcare agency, such as companies, individuals, suppliers of healthcare and insurance services, to have a single, 10-digit ID code, the NPI (National Provider Identifier).
  
  
• Transactions and Code Set Standards. In collecting, or filing insurance claims, companies are driven to follow traditional EDI (electronic data exchange) processes.
  
  
• The Privacy Rules for HIPAA. This regulation seeks to set universal guidelines to secure health details for patients, to ensure protected information is defined individually.
  
  
• HIPAA Security Rule. This regulation also sets requirements for the privacy of patients' records.
  
  
• HIPAA Enforcement Rule. This regulation is introduced to offer guidelines for investigating violations of HIPAA.

By applying HIPAA compliance training systems, companies will lower the likelihood of regulatory action. The OCR delivers a total of six services intended to train workers on security and privacy rules. Providers may also establish their own systems in areas such as the latest HIPAA policies and certain other related guidance.

There is no formal HIPAA compliance qualification scheme, but several consulting firms provide certificates that demonstrate their knowledge of the directives and regulations laid down in the act.