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"For many years as Vice President of Professional Services at Cole Vision, I partnered with the good folks at Great Eyedeal to provide our affiliated ...." more
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Michael L. Cohen
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O.D., F.A.A.O.
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To download and print an Order Form or to request information on Promotional Items, please click here
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| Question: |
What is HIPAA? |
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HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. |
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What does the HIPAA Privacy Rule do? |
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Most health plans and health care providers that are covered by the Rule must comply with the new requirements as of April 14th, 2003.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule creates national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information.
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| Question: |
What does the HIPAA Privacy Rule require the average provider or health plan to do? |
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For the average health care provider or health plan, the Privacy Rule requires activities, such as:
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Notifying patients about their privacy rights and how their information can be used.
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Adopting and implementing privacy procedures for its practice, hospital or plan.
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Training employees so that they understand the privacy procedures.
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Designating an individual to be responsible for seeing that the privacy procedures are followed.
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Screening patient records containing individually identifiable health information so that they are not readily available to those who do not need them.
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Who must comply with the new HIPAA standards? |
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As required by Congress in HIPAA, the Privacy Rule covers:
All private sector health plans (including managed care organizations and ERISA plans, but excluding certain small self-administered health plans) and government health plans (including Medicare, State Medical programs, the Military Health System for active duty and civilian personnel, the Veterans Health Administration, and Indian Health Service programs).
All health care providers who conduct certain financial and administrative transactions electronically. These electronic transitions are those for which standards have been adopted by the Secretary under HIPAA, such as electronic billing and fund transfers.
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| Question: |
My state requires consent to use or disclose health information. Does the HIPAA Privacy Rule take away this protection? |
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No. The Privacy Rule does not prohibit a covered entity from obtaining an individual’s consent to use or disclose his or her health information and, therefore, presents no barrier to the entity’s ability to comply with State law requirements.
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Main Help Page | Forms FAQs
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