Rules: Should I Be Concerned with HIPAA Laws and Regulations
By: Alyssa Rankin
Rules: When people hear the word HIPAA they think that the rules and regulations only apply to doctors. Doctors do need to understand and follow HIPAA rules, but they most definitely aren’t the only people. Lets take a look at who needs to understand HIPAA laws, too.
Business Associates are people or businesses that help medical offices maintain the business side of things. Business Associates often come in contact with personal health information (PHI). So, these businesses need to know the regulations to keep health information safe. Included below are some examples of business associates.
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a company that deals with billing or processing
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an attorney who works with companies to develop health plans
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an independent medical transcriptionist who provides transcription services to a physician, and many more.
Here is a brief example of those who may not think HIPAA relates to them..
Emily is a college-student, who recently got a job at a local law firm because she really wants to go to law school someday. She has been working on a project with her coworker involving a malpractice suit at a local doctors office. She is doing her job and starts to read the case records, but she is curious and starts to read the patient’s medical records. Emily is in violation of HIPAA laws and regulations because knowing the patients date of birth, past medical history, and recent vaccines is not relevant to the malpractice case and could cause potential issues for her firm. Being HIPAA certified in this case would have been extremely beneficial.
To protect patient privacy, healthcare providers must be HIPAA educated. At American Medical Compliance we offer a unique course that is specific to HIPAA training for Business Associates. This course offers specialized learning and tools for these types of business associates so that they too can be HIPAA trained . At AMC our main goal is to provide exceptional training for HIPAA laws and regulations and with this specialized course in our course catalog we are confident that no matter what type of healthcare you provide AMC will have you covered and keep you compliant.
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