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Public Law 104-191, or more commonly known as The Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into law August 21, 1996. This industry
sweeping, landmark legislation affects nearly everyone involved in the healthcare
process from providers to health care information systems vendors to payers.
The primary goal of the Act is to improve portability and continuity of health
insurance coverage in order to combat waste, fraud, and abuse within health insurance
and healthcare delivery.
What does this mean to the healthcare industry?
Many standards must not only be implemented from the hospital level, but from the
information systems perspective as well. Close study and scrutinization of HIPAA
regulation is warranted by the entire healthcare industry.
As final rules are eventually mandated, each standard must be met in a timely manner.
For those ignoring HIPAA regulation, stiff fines are a real possibility.
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