KRISH FAMILY CLINIC

Dr. Madhulika Krish, M.D.
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HIPAA and Your Privacy

 

HIPAA the acronym for the federal legislation titled Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

 

Who must comply with HIPAA? 

 

HIPAA is applicable to:

  • Health Care Providers (who transmit electronic transactions covered by the HIPAA regulations)
  • Health Plans (self insured/insured, HMOs, health insurance companies, employer health plans, and similar arrangements)
  • Health Care Clearinghouses

 

Those who must comply with HIPAA are considered “covered entities.”

 

What does HIPAA do? 

 

Without question, HIPAA is complex and has many components, but basically it addresses 3 major areas:

  1. Privacy - provides new rules in regard to how an individual’s health information may be used and disclosed by covered entities.
  2. Transaction and Code Sets - requires the use of standard transaction formats and code sets when an individual’s financial health information is transmitted electronically by a covered entity for purposes of payment, coverage determinations, eligibility determinations, and similar business matters.
  3. Security - requires covered entities to have specific security measures in place to protect an individual’s health information that is sent or stored electronically.

 

The privacy and security components to HIPAA provide broad reaching protections for your individually identifiable health information.  The transaction and code sets component to HIPAA requires conformity to precise rules in the electronic transmission of your financial health information. 

 

Some of the rights that patients and plan members gain under HIPAA include:

  • The right to receive a written Notice of Privacy Practices 
  • The right to review and get a copy of health and billing information
  • The right to ask that their health and billing information be amended
  • The right to ask for restrictions in the use of their health and billing information
  • The right to ask for confidential communications
  • The right to find out, in some circumstances, who outside of Krish Family Clinic has been given an individual's health information since April 14, 2003
  • The right to file a complaint with Krish Family Clinic or with the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights if they feel their privacy rights have been violated

 

For more information regarding HIPAA please see their website at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/