HIPAA

What is HIPAA? - The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (August 21), Public Law 104-191 - Amendment to the Internal Revenue Service Code of 1986. Also known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act.

In short, HIPAA requires the following:
1. "Standardization of electronic patient health, administrative and financial data
2. Unique health identifiers for individuals, employers, health plans and health care providers
3. Security standards protecting the confidentiality and integrity of "individually identifiable health information," past, present or future." (HIPAA Advisory)

COMPLIANCE DEADLINE was April 14, 2003.

Who must comply? If you are any of the following:

• A healthcare provider
• A payer
• A clearinghouse
• A health plan organization
• An entity that processes health data.
• A healthcare provider that stores or transmits individually identified healthcare information in an electronic format.

I am a physician and do not own a computer. Do I have to purchase one?
HIPAA does not require you to own a computer. However, in the future the standard to manage healthcare business will require the use of a computer. In addition, it may be more cost effective for a practice to submit and receive your transactions electronically.

What is the penalty for noncompliance?
$100 per occurrence up to a maximum of $25,000 per standard per year. However, most physician practices fail to understand that the maximum is per standard. In other words, when you add all the total possibilities of the number of transaction standards, the numbers may multiply.

What can WebForMDs do for your practice?
WebForMDs is a business unit of MicroMed Strategy Inc. MicroMed Strategy will take your practice thru three phases in an effort to make you compliant.. For more information, please email or call us toll free (888) 200-0828.