Welcome
Hot Topics:
- View the current IHS electronic Transaction Testing and RPMS for meeting HIPAA Electronic Transactions and Code Sets standards. Included with the status report are instructions for adding HIPAA required provider and location taxonomy codes to RPMS along with the RPMS Provider Taxonomy Cross-Walk Table.
- A HIPAA Compliance Packet is provided to assist Area and site level programs in meeting HIPAA Transactions and Code Sets standards.
- Minutes of conference calls addressing this issue are included as a reference for people who were not able to be on a call.
- IHS NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES [PDF-468KB]
This links to the current IHS Notice of Privacy Practices that was developed by a workgroup consisting of lawyers, health records personnel and privacy act officers.
- IHS HIPAA Compliant Forms/Policies and Procedures
This links to the HIPAA Policy and Procedure Manual used by the IHS and the forms needed for procedures that require them. These were developed by a workgroup consisting of lawyers, health records personnel and privacy act officers.
Introduction
As passed by the United States Congress, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) will institute administrative reforms that will be phased in over the period 2000-2003. Of major importance in the HIPAA legislation is the issue of data and transaction standardization-a mandate very few healthcare providers can sidestep if they bill third parties for services provided to patients. The law also changes the way health care providers have to protect the privacy of a patient's health information and contains security procedures that must be followed to protect the integrity of a patient's health information.
HIPAA Project Team
Dr. Bob Harry, the Office of the Director IHS, is the national IHS HIPAA coordinator. To carry out his responsibilities, Dr. Harry has formed a multidisciplinary Team. This team will work with Dr. Harry to provide leadership and coordination of all efforts as IHS healthcare programs work to become HIPAA compliant.
The strategic plan developed by the headquarters HIPAA team calls for them to interpret the regulations and develop national policies needed to comply with them. The team will cooperate with regional and national I/T/U programs and provide them with related information and materials as they are developed for HIPAA compliance. Through the HQ HIPAA Team, Dr. Harry will monitor the progress of the HIPAA compliance effort by I/T/U programs.
It is expected that the IHS Area Offices will develop Area HIPAA compliance plans that will include policy development needed to achieve HIPAA compliance at the Area level. Also, the Area Offices will work with the local I/T/U programs in helping them become HIPAA compliant.
HIPAA Background
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is also known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill. It was first proposed with the simple objective to assure health insurance coverage after leaving a job. Congress added an Administrative Simplification section to the bill (see the Department of Health and Human Services Administrative Simplification Web site for more information).
The goal of the Administrative Simplification section of the bill was to save money. It was requested and supported by the health care industry because it standardized electronic transactions and required standard record formats, code sets, and identifiers.
The impact of Electronic Standardization, however, was that it increased risk to security and privacy of individually identifiable health information. After Congress did not provide legislation defining the privacy and security requirements of HIPAA, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was required to provide them.
There are currently four proposed or final rules from DHHS for HIPAA:
- Transaction and Code Set standards (Final)
- Privacy standard (Final)
- Security standard (Final)
- Identifier standards (Proposed)
| 
Acrobat
MS Word
Excel
PowerPoint
