What is HIPAA?

The U.S. Congress, in an effort at healthcare reform, enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Administrative Simplification, a provision within HIPAA, requires the development and implementation of standards for the transmission, handling, security, privacy, and storage of patient-specific administrative and financial information. These new regulations affect all healthcare related organizations—healthcare providers, health plans, public health agencies, clearinghouses, insurers—making HIPAA an enterprise-wide, business operations issue, not simply an information technology (IT) problem. Organizations need to move quickly to ensure that their business policies and procedures and IT systems are HIPAA-compliance within the specified deadlines.

Are you prepared for HIPAA?