Employer's Guide To HIPAA
Overview - What is HIPAA?
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996. Title I of HIPAA governs portability of health
benefits, special enrollment rights, and non-discrimination
rules. Title II, Subtitle F of HIPAA governs "Administrative
Simplification." The Administrative Simplification Rules
are intended to create a uniform system for processing, retaining,
and securing health care information by encouraging the use
of electronic technology, mandating standardization of health-related
transactions, and ensuring the security and privacy of health
information.
Congress delegated responsibility for developing and implementing
the Administrative Simplification provisions of HIPAA to the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS").
The Administrative Simplification Rules are actually a package
of regulations, consisting of:
|
ADMIN
SIMPLIFICATION RULE
|
STATUS
AND DATE
|
| Standards
for electronic transactions |
Final
8/17/2000; modifications proposed 5/31/2002 |
| Privacy
Rule Final |
12/28/2000;
modifications issued 8/14/2002 |
| Standards
for unique identifiers(of four: one final, one proposed)
Employer Identifier |
Final
5/31/2002; Health Care Providers Proposed 5/7/1998 |
| Standards
for electronic signature |
Proposed
8/12/1998 |
| Security
Rule |
Finalized
on 2/13/03 |
| Enforcement
Rule |
Proposed
rule issued 4/18/05 |
|
