Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/142672
living the law—HIPAA By Cherie Sohnen-Moe Established in 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, has three major purposes. 1) To protect and enhance the rights of consumers by providing them access to their health information and controlling the inappropriate use of that information. 2) To improve the quality of health care in the United States by restoring trust in the health-care system among consumers, healthcare professionals, and the multitude of organizations and individuals committed to the delivery of care. 3) To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health-care delivery by creating a national framework for health privacy protection that builds on efforts by states, health systems, individual organizations, and individuals. The Four Facets to HIPAA The four parts to HIPAA's Administrative Simplification are: 1. lectronic Health Transactions E Standards. If billing insurance, practitioners are required to use the standard code sets of the international classification of disease (ICD–10) codes and the current procedural terminology (CPT) codes. 2. Unique Identifiers for Providers, Employers, Health Plans, and Clients. Each practitioner who transmits claims electronically is assigned a national provider identifier (NPI). 3. ecurity of Health Information S and Electronic Signature Standards. All practitioners must provide uniform levels of protection of all health information that is housed or transmitted electronically. This includes your computer, along with any faxes and email messages sent. An electronic signature is required for all HIPAA transactions. 4. rivacy and Confidentiality. P This limits the nonconsensual use and release of private health information; gives clients new rights to access their medical records and to know who else has accessed them; restricts disclosure of most health information to the minimum needed for the intended purpose; institutes criminal and civil sanctions for improper use or disclosure; and establishes new requirements for access to records by researchers and others. Who Is A Covered Entity? The emphasis of HIPAA compliance centers on electronic transmission of clients' protected health information (PHI). While most massage practitioners (unless they are billing insurance) will find that indeed they are not required to be HIPAA compliant, this is misleading because privacy considerations remain. According to Marilyn Allen of the American Acupuncture Council,