If a medical office already has a HIPAA policy and procedures manual, why is a training program needed?
A policy is no more than a statement of a rule. A complex set of rules, as is required with HIPAA, cannot be understood in a vacuum- explanations, examples, illustrations, scenarios, are necessary to enable medical personnel to understand and properly apply the complex set of rules. Interestingly, the HIPAA regulations themselves are accompanied by approximately 400 pages of governmental “preamble” which is the government’s attempt to explain the rules. The government itself did not feel the privacy rules were understandable without extensive explanations. However, these extension and exception provisions in the Simplification Act should not confuse health care providers, plans and clearinghouses. There has been no extension for complying with the Privacy Rule. If a health care provider transmits any health information in electronic form using either the mandated data sets or non-standard electronic formats, such as emails or other billing programs, that provider becomes a covered enti
