Provisions of HIPAA
HIPAA Act consists of two sections. Title I of HIPAA deals with protection and retaining health insurance coverage for individuals (including their dependants) who lose or change jobs. Title II of HIPAA deals with the standardization of healthcare-related information systems and simplification of the system. It strives for the establishment of national standards for electronic healthcare transactions and national identifiers for healthcare providers, health insurance plans and employers. Mandatory regulations are established by HIPAA that require extensive changes to be incorporated in the manner that healthcare providers can conduct their businesses without any hindrances. It helps to keep the data pertaining to healthcare as confidential. In practice though, it is normal for providers and health insurance plans to require the waiver of HIPAA rights as a condition of service.
HIPAA seeks to establish standardized mechanisms for EDI (Electronic data interchange), Security and Confidentiality of all healthcare related data. The Act mandates: standardized formats for patient’s case-taking, administrative and financial data; unique identifiers (ID numbers) for each healthcare entity that includes individuals, employers, health cover plans and healthcare service providers accompanied with security mechanisms to ensure confidentiality and data integrity for any data that is required for identification of an individual. It addresses the security and privacy of data pertaining to healthcare. HIPAA standards have been introduced to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of US healthcare system by encouraging the widespread usage of electronic data interchange within an organization, between organizations and vendors.
