Creating the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) Regardless of your size or specialty, you must provide your patients, employees, or clients a Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) and it must be made available upon request at any time. Since April 14, 2003, medical and dental providers have the responsibility to provide patients a copy of a Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP).Īs a health insurance agency, business associate, or an employer group that provides a group health plan, HIPAA requires you to create and distribute a Notice of Privacy Practices as of 2004.Įxactly what you provide to your clients in an NPP is very specific and how you distribute it depends on your industry. You’ve received one, but is your organization responsible for creating and distributing an NPP for others? You’ve been on the receiving end of a Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) when you go to the doctor. Is your organization required to create and distribute an NPP? This week we’ll review the requirements for an NPP. It’s a part of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and a key requirement for your organization. The NPP is a document that tells your patients, employees, or clients how their health information may be used and shared and lists their health privacy rights related to Protected Health Information (PHI). This is all health information that is included in a medical record that refers to an individual that has been created, received, used, or is managed by a HIPAA-covered entity for the purposes of providing healthcare services or payment for healthcare services.When you mention HIPAA, most people reference the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) they received at the hospital, doctor’s, dentist’s or eye doctor’s office. In HIPAA, PHI refers for protected health information, but PHI commonly is used to refer to patient health information or personal health information. These security measures should be carefully reviewed by HIPAA-covered entities, as the penalties for a breach of the HIPAA Security Rule can be major – in some instance even when there has been no authorized access to – or sharing of – PHI. The Security Rule largely is made up of physical, technical and administrative security measures to stop unauthorized access and disclosure of ePHI. It is also subject to the HITECH ACT when a healthcare group takes part in the Meaningful Use program. Due to the simplicity with which electronically-stored data can be viewed and shared, ePHI is subject to the HIPAA Security Rule along with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. PHI vs ePHIĮPHI refers electronic Protected Health Information and related to any PHI that is created, received, saved, or shared electronically by HIPAA-covered groups. academic institutions hold their experts to this standard of ethics regardless of funding. However, the data is still considered “protected” under the 1981 Common Rule – an Act of Congress that states the baseline standard of ethics under which any government-funded research in the US is maintained. PHI is no longer PHI when all eighteen unique identifiers are removed for marketing or research reasons. Any unique identifying digits, characteristic or code.Complete face photos and similar images.Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers including license plates.There are 18 different unique identifiers regarded as PHI: PHI was defined by the Department of Health & Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) as any Personal Identifying Information that – individually or linked up – could be used to identify a specific person, their past, present or future healthcare, or way that they paid. PHI is not information recorded in education records and neither information that is managed by healthcare organizations in their role as an employer. Measures must be put in place by these groups to protect against the unauthorized disclosure, changes or destroying Protected Health Information as is mentioned in the HIPAA Privacy Rule. PHI includes any data linked to or regarding a patient, a patient’s healthcare or the payment for that healthcare that is created, received, stored, or sent by HIPAA-covered groups.Ī HIPAA-covered group normally includes healthcare providers, health plans, clearinghouses and all business associates or third-party service providers who have can view or download Protected Health Information. PHI stands for Protected Health Information, something that is often referred to in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and similar legislation including the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |