IT Regulatory Compliance in North America

CHAPTER 8: HIPAA

HIPAA – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 1996 – applies to health plans, health care clearing houses and health care providers, which are known in the Act as ‘covered entities’.

The Act requires health care organizations to protect – and keep up-to-date – their patients’ health care records (which includes patient account handling, billing and medical records), in order to streamline health industry processes, reduce paperwork, make the detection and prosecution of fraud easier, and enable workers to more easily change jobs, even if they have pre-existing medical conditions.

The information security requirements of the Act are contained in Health Insurance Reform: Security Standards; Final Rule (45 CFR ...