HIPPA
HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law passed by Congress to address many healthcare issues. However, when people refer to "HIPAA" these days, they're often talking about a subsection under Accountability titled, Administrative Simplification. Its objectives are: improve healthcare delivery, reduce administrative costs, and protect the security and privacy of certain personal health information. To achieve these objectives, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued rules that establish standards how certain health information will be used and protected.
Privacy
HIPAA's Privacy Rule established patient privacy rights and privacy controls through standards about how to use and protect patient information. Although patient privacy has been one of our longstanding operational guidelines, we did enhance our on-going staff training, policies, procedures, information system applications and more to enhance privacy and comply with the standards. See our Notice of Privacy Practices Pamphlet located in our Facility or contact us to be directed to the Facility Privacy Officer at (352)333-5900.
Security
HIPAA's Security Rule establishes standards to protect not only the confidentiality of Protected Health Information, but also the availability and integrity of the information. The security standards complement the privacy standards. All security requirements and standards must be in place by April 2005. We have already satisfied many of the requirements and will meet others before the deadline. Also, our technical and administrative security processes will continue to be enhanced on an on-going basis.
Protecting privacy and security not only give our patients peace of mind, additionally, it is an important component of the high quality patient care that North Florida Endoscopy Center continuously strives to achieve.
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