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HIPAA |
| How NAMM California is tackling the HIPAA challenge. | |
| What is HIPAA? | |
| The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 to reform the health insurance market. Aimed at reducing administrative overhead in health care, the Administrative Simplification sections of the regulations impose requirements for standardized electronic transmission of health care data. These standards are accompanied by privacy and security guidelines to protect patient confidentiality and insure data integrity. These federal regulations will impact the entire health care industry. | |
| What does this mean for Physicians? | |
| Most physician offices are specified as "covered entities" under HIPAA and will be required to comply with the regulations. They will need to review and revise many of their policies and procedures concerning claims submission, medical records maintenance, patient sign-in, physical security, internet/ email security, referral/ authorization submission, eligibility verification, patient consent, and much more. It is crucial that physicians and their staffs begin to familiarize themselves about HIPAA and evaluate the impact it will have on their operations. | |
| When do we need to comply? | |
| Transaction & Code Sets, Privacy and Security aspects of the HIPAA rule have all taken effect, and NAMM California, provider and business associates should now be compliant with those components of the rule. | |
| What is NAMM California doing? | |
| In 2001, NAMM California launched a full scale HIPAA implementation process. NAMM California operations met its goals for implementation and will continue to support the compliance efforts of affiliated IPAs. For the affiliated IPAs, NAMM California will maintain a full compliance program, including transmission of standardized electronic transactions, increased use of EDI, organization wide privacy and security policies and ongoing monitoring of the regulations. To assist the affiliated physicians, NAMM California will provide physician updates. We will provide reference materials and compliance tools, including checklists and tips, sample forms, policy templates and additional HIPAA education if needed. Physicians can contact their NAMM California provider relations representatives for additional information about the HIPAA program. |
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| Where can I find more information? | |
| Check the links below to view the details of the regulations and other related information. Contact the NAMM California HIPAA office at HIPAAhelp@nammcal.com with questions or to obtain additional web site and publication references. http://www.aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) official Administrative Simplification web site. Includes regulations, FAQs, and links to other sites. http://www.os.dhhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/ Office for Civil Rights web site. Includes general and background information on the HIPAA Privacy Regulations. http://wpc-edi.com Implementation guides for the transaction standards technical details on the X12N standards and the taxonomy codes for providers. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa Latest updates on the National Identifier regulations for covered entities. |
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