HIPAA Compliance Training
If you intend to enter medical billing work you need to familiarize yourself with HIPPA laws and in some cases you may require medical billing HIPAA compliance training. Understanding HIPAA laws is the first step. Although official HIPAA compliance training exists, both online and in a classroom setting, a basic understanding of the laws is a must. If you work for a clinic, hospital or Dr's office, they will probably conduct their own HIPAA compliance training in house. Most of these settings have a HIPAA compliance specialist on staff. If you work for yourself in as a medical billing specialist, you still need an understanding of HIPAA compliance and HIPAA laws. Here are the basics.
What is HIPAA:
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a bill that was created by the United States Congress in 1996 and was enforced in 1997. The reason behind the creation of this act was to prevent abuse, fraud and waste of health insurance, health delivery, and other aspects of health. HIPAA protects a person’s private information. The term for this is PHI, or Protected Health Information. The intention with HIPAA was that the level of health care would increase because of the rules set out by the law. Medical billing HIPAA compliance is important because the law states the rules that need to be adhered when it comes to health insurance, and the legal complications that would arise if the rules are not followed. The bottom line is that the patient's privacy be maintained. We will outline some more Medical billing HIPAA compliance details later in this blog topic, but here are some pointers:
HIPAA Basics
*HIPAA is a federal law that requires the confidentiality of a persons PHI
*PHI includes demographic information, insurance,medical records, etc.
*HIPAA grants the patient rights as to the release of their PHI
*You can not discuss PHI with any unauthorized person
*The transmission of PHI via e-mail is prohibited
Not all positions you enter will require official medical billing HIPAA compliance training. As we mentioned, most Dr’s and clinics do their own HIPAA compliance training. If your goal is to go into your own medical billing practice, or to seek management in a health care field, then official HIPAA compliance training is a good idea. There are many online programs and courses for HIPAA compliance. In some cases they involve DVD courses or online tutorials. You may seek further information on HIPAA or proper HIPAA compliance training from our site sponsors.
