What is HIPAA?
HIPAA refers to the "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996." This far-reaching federal law has many components, which are being implemented in a staggered fashion. HIPAA rules initially focused on portability of health coverage and nondiscrimination on the basis of health status. Currently, the most important HIPAA components are:
- Privacy Rule: This rule, along with state law, regulates how we handle the health information we need to administer our health, dental, and long term care policies, and establishes some new rights for covered individuals. Please see our Notice of Privacy Practices sent to you with your policy packet and posted in this area on our Web site, for more details. The compliance deadline was April 14, 2003.
- The rules for electronic transactions and code sets, and national unique identifiers: These rules mandate the form and content of major health insurance transactions, such as submission and payment of claims, involving health care providers and payers. These are very major changes for insurers and providers but are largely invisible to individuals. The compliance deadline was October 16, 2003.
- Security Rule: This rule focuses on maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of individually identifiable health information that is received, maintained, or transmitted electronically by your providers or the Trust. The compliance deadline was April 21, 2005.
It is hoped that the combined impact of the HIPAA rules will be enhanced efficiency and modernization of the entire health care system and enhanced privacy and security for individually identifiable health information.
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