Do you know how secure your medical records are?
By now most of us are familiar with the privacy practices at our doctor's office. It seems almost annually we have to sign the disclosure stating we are familiar with it. But what does that all mean and what is HIPAA that law that these privacy practices are based on? In a really summarized version, HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Title I protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. Title II (aka the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions) requires the establishment of national standards for electronic healthcare transactions, and identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. It basically helps people keep their information private. HIPAA applies to medical information as well as financial and payment information. Wikipedia has a good definition of the privacy rules http://is.gd/sbsp. Why am I writing about HIPPA today? Because I keep getting medical faxes...