Web Site Offers Guidance On Complying With HIPAA.BindView Corp., an information technology administration and security-management company, now offers an online portal providing news and information about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website, Title I of HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when of 1996. The site, www.ready4bipaa.com, provides news and information about H[PAA to health-care management and information-technology professionals. It includes explanations of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191) Also known as the "Kennedy-Kassebaum Act," this U.S. law protects employees' health insurance coverage when they change or lose their jobs (Title I) and provides standards for patient health, statutes and the law's effects on information-technology administration and security. Health plans with gross revenues of less than $5 million have until Oct. 16, 2003, to comply, but all other health plans must comply by Oct. 16, 2002. The purpose of the HIPAA provisions is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the health-care system by standardizing the electronic-data interchange of certain administrative and financial transactions and to protect the security and privacy of transmitted information. Transactions affected by the rules include activities such as claims, referral authorization The right or permission to use a system resource; the process of granting access. See access control. , enrollment/disenrollment, eligibility inquiries and premium payments. BindView's Web site provides information-technology administrators with information for performing the specific tasks, system maintenance and security overhauls designed to help them to meet the stringent security and patient-privacy standards by the 2003 deadline. The online portal offers users a detailed compliance-process timeline, as well as general explanations of federal regulations, security and privacy statutes, electronic transaction information, HIPAA codes and identifiers. The site also explains the four basic stages of HIPAA compliance--preparation, strategy, implementation and maintenance--and how hospitals and health-care organizations can best prepare and execute each stage. Also featured on the site is a directory of consultants and vendors that deal with authentication (1) Verifying the integrity of a transmitted message. See message integrity, e-mail authentication and MAC. (2) Verifying the identity of a user logging into a network. , biometrics The biological identification of a person. Examples are face, iris and retinal patterns, hand geometry and voice. Increasingly built into laptop computers, fingerprint readers have become popular as a secure method for identification. , server configuration, policy enforcement and vulnerability assessment A Department of Defense, command, or unit-level evaluation (assessment) to determine the vulnerability of a terrorist attack against an installation, unit, exercise, port, ship, residence, facility, or other site. . The Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Shield A US not-for-profit health care insurer that is a reimbursement intermediary for physicians. Cf Blue Cross. Association estimates that U.S. hospitals will spend up to $43 billion over the next five years to comply with HIPAA. But the U.S. government argues that both patients and hospitals will benefit substantially from the regulations, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Noun 1. Department of Health and Human Services - the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979 Health and Human Services, HHS estimating that hospitals and health-care organizations will save $30 billion over the next 10 years through the increased efficiency. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion