Enforcement of the Privacy Rule
began in April 14, 2003, for many of the HIPAA covered entities with the HHS Office for Civil Rights who
were authorized to enforce the Privacy and Security Rules. The covered
entities’ privacy practices enforced by the activities of the OCR were
leveraged and experienced improved results. The protection and privacy of
health information of individuals were systematized with the corrective rules of
the OCR that were exercised by covered entities and this resulted in
improvement and HIPAA enforcement. With the requirement of complying with the
HIPAA Security Rule that was established on April 20, 2005, the OCR was chosen
as the authorized agent for the enforcement of the Security Rule on July 27,
2009.
The covered entities range over
healthcare providers such as dentists, clinics, nursing homes, psychologists,
nursing homes, chiropractors, pharmacies transmitting information and
transacting through an electronic format designed by HHS standards. The Health
Plan is rendered through services by HMOs, health insurance companies,
healthcare paid by government programs evolving over Medicaid, Medicare,
veterans’ health care programs and the military. It is important to note that
the processing of health information by healthcare clearing entities are
received from yet another entity following a stipulated electronic format.
The HIPAA Rule ranges over the Privacy Rule or the Standards for Privacy of Individually
Identifiable Health Information. In order to implement the HIPAA standards or the Health
Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act of 1996, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services or the HHS has enforced the Privacy Rule. This Privacy Rule stipulated
that the usage of health information that pertains to the disclosure and use of
an individual’s health insurance which is otherwise known as protected health
information and the control of violations should be exercised. Coming under the
umbrella of the HHS, the Office for Civil Rights or the OCR should be
responsible for enforcing, implementing and upholding the Privacy Rule which
when violated would call for civil money penalties. With flexibility being one
of the aspects of the Privacy Rule, the enforcement has a balanced outlook to
the various kinds of uses and disclosures. With the Administrative
Simplification provisions addressing the security, privacy and standards for
the electronic exchange of health information administered by the Secretary of
HHS Sections 261 through 264 of HIPAA or the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996, the Public Law 104-191 was enacted on August 21,
1996.
For more information,
visit http://www.usmedicaltranscriptionservice.com/ or call 1-800-723-4308
