The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into effect
by President Clinton on August 21, 1996. It is, perhaps, the most complex and far-reaching
set of federal requirements to regulate the health care industry since Medicare
legislation. HIPAA is devoted to safeguarding the rights of individuals. There
are strict new requirements for the uniform transfer of electronic health care
billing and payment data; new patient rights regarding personal health information
(PHI), and the right to access this information or limit its' disclosure. Broad
new security rules have been enacted to protect confidentiality of patients'
medical information.
In the near future, the government HIPAA regulations will mandate that all HMO's and
insurance claims are filed electronically. We have electronic claims submission
capability, and do so daily to all government and commercial carriers.
Our office is HIPAA compliant with our compliance plan already in place. All
files are kept behind locked doors. We perform daily, as well as monthly, backups
of all data and our software is password protected.