What is HIPAA?

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HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed by Congress in 1996.  HIPAA helps by:

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• Providing the ability to transfer and continue health insurance coverage for millions of American workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs;
• Reducing health care fraud and abuse;
• Mandating  industry-wide standards for health care information on electronic billing and other processes;
• Requiring the protection and confidential handling of protected health information

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HIPAA compliance is relevant to Covered Entities and Business Associates. Covered Entities include the following:

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• Healthcare providers - Hospitals, doctors, clinics, psychologists, dentists, chiropractors, nursing homes, and pharmacies
• Health plans - health insurance companies, HMOs, company health plans, Medicare, and Medicaid
• Healthcare clearinghouses - an entity that takes in information from a healthcare entity, puts the data into a standard format, and then returns the information to another healthcare entity.

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Business Associates are vendors or subcontractors who have access to private health information (PHI). If your company stores or processes PHI, you should be HIPAA  compliant.