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By regulation, the HHS extended the HIPAA privacy rule to independent contractors of covered entities who fit within the definition of "business associates". [23] PHI is any information that is held by a covered entity regarding health status, provision of health care, or health care payment that can be linked to any individual. [ 20 ]
Covered Entities often use third parties to provide certain health and business services. If they need to share PHI with those third parties, it is the responsibility of the Covered Entity to put in place a Business Associate Agreement that holds the third party to the same standards of privacy and confidentiality as the Covered Entity. [6]
According to HIPAA, the covered entities that must follow the law's set mandates are health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers that electronically transmit PHI. Business associates of these covered entities are also subject to HIPAA's rules and regulations.
The HITECH Act requires entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to report data breaches that affect 500 or more persons to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. HHS), to the news media, and to the people affected by the data breaches. [23]
A practice that has interactions with the patient must now, under HIPAA law 1996, send most billing claims for services via electronic means. Prior to actually performing service and billing a patient, the care provider may use software to check the eligibility of the patient for the intended services with the patient's insurance company.
The Regional Health Information Organizations, or RHIOs, are ordinarily geographically defined entities that develop and manage a set of contractual conventions and terms, arrange for the means of electronic exchange of information, and develop and maintain HIE standards. [2]
Federal and state governments, insurance companies and other large medical institutions are heavily promoting the adoption of electronic health records.The US Congress included a formula of both incentives (up to $44,000 per physician under Medicare, or up to $65,000 over six years under Medicaid) and penalties (i.e. decreased Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to doctors who fail to use ...
CMS subsequently announced that as of May 23, 2008, CMS will not impose penalties on covered entities that deploy contingency plans to facilitate the compliance of their trading partners (e.g., those healthcare providers who bill them). The posted guidance document can be used by covered entities to design and implement a contingency plan.