What is HIPAA?

The State of Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene website has about the most awesome, most definitive, most spot-on, most user-friendly definition of what the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is and is not.


While the information is provided without the express written consent of the State of Maryland, it is directly from their website. We encourage you to visit the website at http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/hipaa/whatishipaa.html

That being said, I will now defer to the State of Maryland to answer the question of what is HIPAA:

What is HIPAA?

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 Background
Administrative Simplification is a method of making business practice (the billing, claims, computer systems and communication) uniform in order that providers and payers do not have to change the way in which they interact with each other through each other's proprietary systems. The changes affect such activities as:

* Enrolling an individual in a health plan
* Paying health insurance premiums
* Checking eligibility
* Obtaining authorization to refer a patient to a specialist
* Processing claims
* Notifying a provider about the payment of a claim


HITECH
Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) as part of the American Recoveries and Reinvestment Act of 2009. HITECH makes several significant modifications to HIPAA. These changes include:

* Creating incentives for developing a meaningful use of electronic health records
* Changing the liability and responsibilities of Business Associates|
* Redefining what a breach is
* Creating stricter notification standards
* Tightening enforcement
* Raising the penalties for a violation
* Creating new code and transaction sets

Again, we invite you to see for yourself the rest of the website and the awesome information it contains at http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/hipaa/whatishipaa.html

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