Frequently Asked Questions
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) includes provisions of Federal law governing health coverage portability, health information privacy, administrative simplification, medical savings accounts, and long-term care insurance.
Yes. The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was originally signed into law to “improve the portability and accountability of health insurance coverage” for employees between work. The Privacy and Security rules were signed in shortly after to protect “any information held by a US healthcare organization which concerns health status, the provision of healthcare, or payment that can be linked to an individual”. Other aims of the HIPAA were to tackle waste, fraud, and abuse of health insurance and healthcare provision.
HIPAA is applicable to healthcare organizations within the US who are involved in rendering healthcare services to the people who are a part of the US healthcare system. This includes patients, people participating in research, insurance customers etc.
Not necessarily. Scoleo will guide you to understand which parts of the law is applicable to your organization and also help you comply with the applicable parts of the law by designing a customized HIPAA compliance program.
Yes as long as you are involved in rendering services relating to the data of individuals who are a part of the US healthcare system on behalf of the US healthcare organization.
Protected Health Information (or PHI) is any “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a US healthcare organization or any organization working on behalf of the US healthcare organization. This can be in any form- electronic, paper or even oral. PHI relates to an individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and the provision of the healthcare to the individual or payments relating to the health care of the individual.
A breach under HIPAA means the acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of PHI in a manner not complying with HIPAA, which compromises the security or privacy of the PHI.
First Step is to stop the breach immediately and ensure whatever caused the breach is fixed as soon as possible. Do a root cause analysis. More importantly, apply those provisions of HIPAA law which gives you an understanding of what needs to be done incase of a breach.
No. HIPAA makes an organization mindful of an individual’s right to his data privacy and security. As long as the applicable parts of the law are complied with, an organization’s work would never be hampered.
Create a HIPAA compliance program for your organization and ensure the program is maintained on an ongoing basis.
