If you’re a part of the healthcare industry, you must have heard of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, signed into law in 1996.

This blog will further discuss what the law entails and its importance:

What is HIPAA?

HIPPA is a US law that was designed to protect patients’ medical records. It also covers other sensitive health information that’s provided to doctors, and other health care providers. Therefore, companies that deal with this protected health information should have security measures in place to ensure HIPAA compliance.

Developed by the Department of Health and Human Services, HIPAA Compliance extends to the covered entities—those who provide treatments in healthcare—and business associates—those who have access to confidential patient information and provide support in treatments.

Other HIPAA Guidelines include:

• It provides the ability to transfer health insurance coverage for millions of Americans when they change/lose their jobs
• It effectively reduces health care abuse and fraud
• It mandates federal standards for health information, its protection and confidential handling

Importance Of HIPAA Compliance For Healthcare Organizations

Let’s look at why it’s necessary for medical facilities to comply with HIPAA.

Streamlines Administrative Healthcare Functions

When HIPAA was introduced, it facilitated the transition of health information from paper-based records to electronic copies.

Compliance with industrywide standards for electronic transition of health information ensures that everyone is on the same page. Since all entities covered by HIPAA use the same nationally recognized identifiers and code sets, this significantly helps with the transfer of health information between health plans,healthcare professionals and other entities.

HIPAA Compliance Promotes Patient Transparency

Once patients trust that their private information is secure, they’re likely to disclose medical details to their healthcare professionals; after all, there’s a wide range of topics that can elicit sensitivity in patients including mental health issues, substance abuse, reproductive concerns and more.

Research reveals that patients whotrust their healthcare providers are far more willing to seek care and likely to come back for follow-ups. Therefore, providers that are transparent about their HIPAA compliance encourage the same transparency in their patients.

Our experts are well-versed in HIPAA requirements and skilled in maintaining proper security protocols of your existing systems. If you want to work with leading network security experts in the market, get in touch with us 409-670-1356 and visit our site for more details.

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