HIPAA at a Glance

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 with a purpose of protecting the priviacy and security of patient data.

Protected Health Information, it includes names, social security numbers, date, and place of service, and all other individually identifiable information.

Electronic Protected Health Information

Department of Health and Human Services that regulates the law, specifically the Office of Civil Rights(OCR).

Electronic Medical Records, Electronic Health Records

Healthcare provider (doctors, clinics, dentists, psychologists, chiropractors, pharmacies), a healthcare clearinghouse (entities that process nonstandard health information they receive from another entity into a standard, i.e., standard electronic format or data content).

A person or an organiztion, other than a member of the covered entity, that performs activities or functions on behalf of, or services to, a covered entity that involve the use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information (claims processing, data analysis, billing/accounting, legal, management).

A public or private entity that either: 1)processes or facilitates the processing of information received from another entity in a nonstandard format or containing nonstandard data content into standard data elements or a standard transaction; or 2) receives a standard HIPAA transaction from another entity and processes or facilitates the processing of information into nonstandard format or nonstandard data content for receiving entity.

The required implementation for Risk Analysis, requires a covered entity to "conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information held by the covered entity."

The required implementation specification for Risk Management, requires a covered entity to "implement security measures sufficient to reduce risks and vulnerabilities to a reasonable and appropriate level to comply with [(the General Requirements of the Security Rule)]."