What the Difference Between Hippa

What were the issues that HIPAA was to address? How well has it worked thus far?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 to protect the health care information of all individuals whether the information is written or electronic. This federal-regulated law requires all health care organizations to comply with this law. Consent must be obtained from the patient before their personal information can be released. HIPAA sets a minimum standard that every state must abide by, but state law may increase the privacy standards set by the federal act.

HIPAA also addresses the issue of portability. In the past, employees have been afraid to leave their place of employment for fear of losing medical insurance coverage. HIPAA ensures that insurance through a different employer is not allowed to deny coverage to a new employee for pre-existing conditions. The problem with this provision is that if you received treatment for any condition 6 months prior to employment, they are allowed to deny coverage based on the premise of a pre-existing condition (United States Department of Labor).

HIPAA regulations are cumbersome and have yet to become an integral part of clinical practice. Standardization and security of health care information is essential in cases of natural disasters, epidemics, terrorist attacks and other crises. Depending on the patient’s location in healthcare organizations, they are assigned many different identification numbers. It is a goal to link patient information across the continuum of care at various locations. With different numbers, there is the higher risk of patient safety and medical errors or theft of patient identification. Development of a unique identifier is the key to successfully overcoming the controversial aspects of HIPAA.

HIPAA rules continue to allow facilities to allow sign-in sheets and overhead pages as long as no medical information is disclosed (U.S. Department of Health & Human...