Hipaa, How it may affect me in a doctor office - Essay Example

Effect of HIPAA on me in the doctor’s office Effect of HIPAA on me in the doctor’s office Health Insurance Probability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 was enacted with the intention to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care systems. The act has two parts: first one deals with the coverage of health insurance of workers and their families during a job change or loss of jobs; and the second part establishes rules for standardizing the healthcare systems with respect to electronic transactions, insurance plans, identifiers for providers and employees (Iyer et al., 2006).According to the first part, irrespective of me being an employee in the doctor’s office I will be benefitted with the act.

In case of a job change I will be able to benefit from the act as I will be able to reduce the exclusion period in group health plan and health insurance coverage. This is a positive affect that the act will have on me.As an employee in a doctor’s office, HIPAA would affect me in numerous ways from the second part of the HIPAA. First and the foremost, there would be increased pressure in order to ensure the safety of the health care data. Personal responsibility needs to be taken in order to ensure that all the rules and regulations are followed in order to the safeguard the information.

Failure to do so will attract serious penalties.There will be special training on the use and understanding of the new systems. As the patient information is accessed by many, the responsibility to protect that information becomes even greater. Hence, I will need to undergo training not just on how to use the new systems but also on the various aspects of the act itself. This will help to have a clear understanding of the act and hence act within the rules and regulations defined in the act. Also training is required in using the equipments that will be in place as a result of the HIPAA act (Iyer et al., 2006).It is also the responsibility of me and my colleagues to explain the provisions and the various aspects of the act to the patients.

The complexities of the act must be clearly communicated to the patients so that they can make full use of it. Also a result of the act, there will be continuous monitoring and supervision of my work. I will be monitored to see if all the procedure laid out by the hospital is being followed or not. Also I must comply with the personnel and security management systems in the hospital.There are some do’s and dont’s that need to be followed. Some of them are:Do not disclose individual heal information about the patient to another person.

Keep the conversations on phone privateHave to be discrete when calling out patients nameEnsure that the charts of the patients are kept confidentialFollow the policies set while handling requests from the patirentFollow procedures set by the hospitalParticipate in the trainings about HIPAA (Osborne, 2002)It is clear from the above discussion how HIPAA affects me while working in the doctor’s office.ReferencesOsborne, H. (2002). In Other Words…How the New HIPAA Regulations Affect Healthcare Communication.

Boston Globes On Call.[Online]. Available at: http://www.healthliteracy.com/article.asp?PageID=3789. Accessed on 24th July, 2011.Iyer, P.W., Levin, B.J. & Shea, M.A. (2006). Medical legal aspects of medical records. AZ: Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company.