What is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was a result of congressional healthcare reform proponents in an effort to improve healthcare. The HIPAA legislation has four primary objectives. • Guarantee security and privacy of health information. • Enforce standards for health information. • Reduce healthcare fraud and abuse. • Assure health insurance portability by eliminating job-lock due to preexisting medical conditions.
HIPAA is an acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPAA was established within the Clinton administration’s health care reform policy, and was enacted to improve productivity of the American health care system. The law encourages development of information systems based on the exchange of standard management and financial data using EDI. It also requires organizations exchanging transactions for health care to follow national implementation guidelines for EDI established for this purpose. You’ve probably been hearing people refer to “HIPAA” as if it is a single program or project. It’s actually a complex legislative act of the federal government, organized into several key titles, or sections (see how the legislation is organized).
HIPAA is an acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This Act was introduced in 1996, but not fully implemented until 2003. HIPAA was created to insure that people between jobs would still have access to quality health care coverage, since in the past it was difficult or impossible to change insurance carriers without facing lowered coverage or exorbitant premiums. HIPAA was also intended to protect private health care information and create a uniform standard for dispersing personal information. What does portability mean? Before HIPAA, if a person lost his job and therefore his insurance coverage, the next insurance company he used could classify his health needs as “pre-existing conditions.” Doing so allowed the insurance provider to pay little or nothing for services needed to remedy such conditions, despite the fact that the client was paying for the insurance. For example, if a person was regularly taking prescription medicine for high blood pressure,
The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Public Law was passed by Congress: • To improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets • To combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery • To reduce costs and the administrative burdens of health care by improving efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system by standardizing the interchange of electronic data for specified administrative and financial transactions • To ensure protecting the privacy of Americans personal health records by protecting the security and confidentiality of health care information
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996, and became effective July 1, 1997. This act is a grouping of regulations that work to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health care delivery and health insurance. The intention of the HIPAA is also to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system, portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, as well as the ability to provide consequences to those that do not apply with the regulations explicitly stated within the Act.
