The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for administering the HIPAA legislation, which was the initial attempt to control the handling of personal data.
HIPAA was initially enacted in 1996 as an administrative rule with the goals of streamlining the administration of healthcare, reducing waste, preventing healthcare fraud, and ensuring that employees may continue to be covered by their health insurance policies even after they left their jobs. But as technology and the times changed, the law underwent a number of adjustments.
Today, “covered entities” like healthcare providers, insurance providers, and third parties working with data from healthcare and insurance providers must comply with HIPAA’s privacy, security, and breach notification standards. Failure may result in severe consequences.
We’ve put up this in-depth reference to HIPAA regulations and HIPAA compliance to help you avoid a data breach and significant fines.
Healthcare and health insurance firms can better prepare for attacks by following privacy and security laws. Other HIPAA regulations are:
The HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules
- Permitted uses and disclosures of PHI
- Breach obligations and response
- Preparation for an OCR investigation
1 Privacy rule
Health plans, healthcare providers, and healthcare clearinghouses that handle typical healthcare transactions electronically must adhere to the HIPAA Privacy Regulation, which establishes the national standards for securing individually identifiable health information.
2. The HIPAA Security Rule
It establishes security requirements to safeguard the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of electronically protected health information (e-PHI). It mandates the implementation of technical safeguards, transmission security, encryption, and other security measures by covered entities. For instance, PHI access is restricted by access control rules to those individuals or software applications that require it.
3. The Omnibus Rule
In order to strengthen the security and privacy of health information created under HIPAA, the Omnibus Rule applies numerous requirements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Additionally, it establishes accountability for businesses and the person in charge of managing PHI through HIPAA’s penalty provisions.
4. The Breach Notification Rule According to the Breach Notification Regulation, PHI data breaches must be reported to HIPAA-covered businesses and their business partners. According to the rule, affected parties, the HHS Secretary, and, under certain conditions, the media, must be notified. Business partners are also required to inform covered entities.