HIPAA Privacy Regulations

ABSTRACT

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) impacts all health-care professionals, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The administration simplification section of HIPAA includes specific regulations designed to protect the privacy of an individual's health records. These privacy regulations are not designed to impede upon essential health-care practices, but do require that covered providers take reasonable steps to limit the use and disclosure of protected health information. Important aspects of the privacy regulations include the development of facility- or practice-specific privacy policies, the development of a privacy manual, staff training on privacy policies and procedures, and the drafting and posting of a notice of privacy practices. In addition, authorization forms are mandated for instances of use and disclosure of public health information not related to treatment, payment, or health-care operations.

HIPAA - privacy - regulations - authorizations

REFERENCES

• 1 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association . Code of ethics (revised).  ASHA. 2003;  23(suppl) 13-15
• 2 Koshar L, Bugdanowitz L. Strategies in measuring performance in achieving HIPAA compliance.  J Health Care Compliance. 2003;  5 49-51
• 3 Cooper A, Rizek J. The HIPAA Privacy Rule, act II: auditing compliance program effectiveness.  J Health Care Compliance. 2005;  7 61-62 83

APPENDIX A RECOMMENDED WEB SITES

• American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)

• www.ahima.org

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

• www.asha.org/about/legislation-advocacy/federal/hipaa/

• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (HIPAA information)

• www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2

• National Provider Identifier

• https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov

• US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights-HIPAA

• www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa (provides extensive educational and enforcement information)

• Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI)

• www.wedi.org (provides extensive information about many aspects of HIPAA implementation. See especially the document “Background on Electronic Health Records for Small Practices White Paper” (3/15/05). Access by finding the page for Strategic National Implementation Process (SNIP), then scroll to “What's New Archives.” Scroll to 3/15/05 and see title).