An 8 page paper discussing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), specifically as it applies to security of electronic data. The paper provides an overview of the act’s history and what the law means for care-providing entities. There were many changes in the privacy issues between rule proposal and the final rule on privacy. Such changes are not likely on security issues, however. As data increasingly is committed to electronic form, its preservation becomes increasingly critical. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: CC6_KSnursHIPAAgen.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
be danger when the federal government begins focusing on "simplification," and indeed there is little about the Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA, Title II). There is, however, hope in the simplification requirements of HIPAA. HIPAA requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish national standards for electronic
health care transactions, as well as "national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. It also addresses the security and privacy of health data" (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996, 2004). The goal is to "improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nations health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in
health care" (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, 2004) while also enhancing and securing the privacy of individuals medical information. HIPAAs History
The act was enacted in 1996, but its foundations were laid much earlier. It was in 1975 that the insurance industry began discussing the possibility of uniform
treatment and diagnostic codes (Goedert, 2005). In the meantime, health care costs were rising dramatically and all of American business changed dramatically. The great downsizing waves of the
late 1980s and early 1990s placed many in the position of not having health care coverage. Many faced long terms of unemployment, and when they found other work, they
then had to undergo a waiting period before new employer-provide health care insurance would take effect. Pre-existing conditions excluded many other others from coverage.
This situation created much of the impetus behind HIPAA, as evidenced by the acts name. It always included other aspects, however. Congressman David Hobson (R-OH) vigorously