A better question might be: How has it not changed it?
That would be a very short answer. HIPAA was developed due to the fact a
deadline was not made. The medical
community could not accomplish it, so the government took over, and put it into
action October 2002.
Who
Does HIPAA Apply To?
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Insurance companies that deliver patient decides must be in compliance with HIPAA. Any type of insurer is required to abide by HIPAA rules and regulations,
and can face stiff penalties if they fail to do so.This changed insurance companies considerably;
no longer could they simply give out or obtain information with and from
medical facilities. If a patient is
admitted to a hospital, and has not granted permission, the hospital cannot
discuss the patient at all with the insurance company. Of course, this would mean they would not
cover the costs, if they don't know why the patient was admitted they can't be
expected to pay. Insurance companies
also like to have a say in how long a patient is hospitalized and at what
level, without permission granted by the patient, per HIPAA regulations the
insurance company would be left out completely. For this reason, when a patient is admitted to a hospital, they sign
forms giving the hospital permission to discuss their condition with the
insurance company.
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Doctors’ Offices and medical practices must
now comply with HIPAA. Unless the
patient authorizes the medical facility permission to share their information,
they cannot legally do so.This can
involve other medical offices, pharmacies, home health care agencies, and
family members. When a patient signs in
at the doctor’s office on the first visit, they are required to sign a HIPAA
form that indicates they understand their rights and obligations where sharing
information is concerned.
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Pharmacies must also comply with
HIPAA. This means if a physician’s
office needs to provide a referral to another office, or discuss your case with
anyone, including family, other physicians or laboratories.
With the implantation of electronic health care
records, it eliminated the need to have files, and hundreds of drawers to accommodate
them. Electronic records are great;however,
the medical facilities must have strict guidelines in place to assure medical
records are securely stored by the electronic system. Records can be easily sent to another health
care provider; however,they need to be safely sent, with no chance of interception
by a third party.
Remember the days when you could call a hospital and
provide a name to determine the condition of a patient? That will no longer happen. Many hospitals now provide a code or password
that must be used in order to obtain information about a patient. The patient decides who can receive the code,
and without the code, no information with be given on the patient’s condition.
Ironically,
patients still have roommates in hospitals, which bring up the subject of
HIPAA. How is an intake done, or when a
doctor visits, it's obvious the other patient in the room is hearing the conversation? HIPPA has relaxed their rules in these cases,
with the only requirement being that the divider curtain must be closed.
There
is no question that some typeof health information privacy act needed to be put
into place, and HIPAA is here to stay, so we have it for good. The rules protect the rights of patients, so
that their health information is not discussed with anyone they have not
authorized to have it. HIPAA may seem
like a hassle at times, both to medical personnel and to patients. However, consider this, perspective
employers, friends, essentially anyone could obtain your medical history
without HIPAA in place, so it really is a much-needed regulation.
HIPAA
does exactly what it was intended to do, protects the healthcare information
for every person. If information needs
to be shared, it's simply a matter of signing consent to share, a small price to
pay for securing health care records, and making sure everyone's privacy is
protected.
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