Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

The Administration Simplification rules of Title II of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996, has changed the way personal information is treated in the health care system within the United States.  These rules are mandatory for all health care transactions by ?covered entities? where a patient?s personal health information is being transmitted electronically.  A covered entity can be a health plan, a health care provider, a health care clearinghouse, or a ?hybrid entity? which will have a health care component as part of its operations.  Examples include all U.S.-based doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who process claims electronically.  Certain other companies which are not covered entities but store electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) on behalf of covered entities are also affected by these rules. 

There are a total of five Administration Simplification ?rules? associated with HIPAA including:

The Transactions and Code Sets Rule

The Privacy Rule

The Security Rule

The Unique Identifiers Rule

The Enforcement Rule

As the focus in this forum is on technology-based solutions for the information security requirements of HIPAA, we will be discussing primarily the Security Rule in this portion of our community site.  However, the other rules of HIPAA are discussed as they relate to the problem space that Quest products address.

Do you need to find a solution to your HIPAA Security Rule requirements?  Do you have a comment or a suggestion for others facing HIPAA compliance and using Quest products? Or have you found something that works especially well? Please let us know!  

We look forward to all your questions, comments and suggestions!