Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
{LANG_NAVORIGIN} Reference
The HIPAA Privacy Rule took effect on April 14, 2003. Key privacy provisions include:
- Patients must be able to access their record and correct errors
- Patients must be informed of how their personal information will be used.
- Patient information can only be shared if needed to treat the patient. In particular, it cannot be used for marketing purposes without their explicit consent.
- Patients can ask their health plans and providers to take reasonable steps to ensure that their communications with the patient are confidential. For instance, a patient can ask to be called on his work number, instead of home or cell phone number.
- Patients can file formal privacy-related complaints to the HHS' Office for Civil Rights.
- Health plans or providers must document their privacy procedures, but they have discretion on what to include in their privacy procedure.
- Health plans or providers must designate a privacy officer and train their employees.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "HIPAA".
E-Mail Link
Your IP address will be sent with this e-mail