HIPAA

Close on the heels of yesterday’s GDPR post, is another post on privacy. This post deals with privacy of health information of individuals. HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a Federal law enacted in the US that seeks to protect the health information of individuals.

Medical information is extremely private and you should control who has access to it. HIPAA makes sure that an individual’s medical privacy is maintained.

These are the salient features of HIPAA:

1. The HIPAA Federal law states that individuals will have the right to know who has viewed their medical information.

2. Individuals also have the right to know and control how their medical information is being used.

3. The individuals’ information should also be protected when it is being transferred from one place to another during the course of their treatment.

Protected information:

This is the information that is protected for an individual.

1. Information that the doctor and nurses put in your medical record
2. The medical conversations that the doctor has with you
3. The information that is entered about you in the medical system
4. Billing information
5. Any other health information about you

What can you do with the HIPAA rule?

1. You can see your medical records
2. You can make changes to it
3. You can know how your information is being used and shared
4. You can question the reason behind the sharing of your medical information
5. If you feel your rights are being violated, you can file a complaint

Note:

On January 19, 2021, in light of the COVID 19 pandemic, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services stated that health care providers will not be penalized for scheduling online appointments for vaccinations(which seemed to be violating HIPAA regulations) on grounds of it being a public medical emergency)

What do you think about the HIPAA rule? Is it a good privacy rule?

This post is for alphabet ‘H’ for #BlogchatterA2Z 2021 by @Blogchatter