In 2002 the medical world changed drastically. At least in the United States that is. That is when HIPAA took effect. Or in other words the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This meant big changes for the way hospitals and any medical office or professional handled billing, patient records and privacy and various other things. Almost everybody needed HIPAA consulting.
Anytime a big change comes down the pipeline there will be growing pains. This is true for any industry and it was also true for the medical industry as well. The changes that took place were big. One of the reasons it was so difficult for the medical industry to catch on to what HIPAA was and required was because many doctors do not know the first thing about insurance, how it works, or any of the other paperwork involved in their office.
When patients are visiting the doctor they must be told about their rights. This is one of the big changes that took place. Staff is required to show patients paperwork detailing what their rights are and they are required to sign it. By doing so it shows that the doctors office has done its job by giving the patient their required forms and information about their rights.
It is important for patients to be given their rights and information because when the act was first introduced it was a bit confusing to professionals and doctors and the average patient would need some help to understand what exactly was involved in the act. This was very important because it effected the patients the most.
One of the biggest new changes was that before any medical information was to be shared with any other agencies for any reason, the patient must give express written consent for the communication to take place. In the past only a faxed request or written request from the doctor would do. Today all the power rests with the patient.
It was not just the doctors and the staff that needed to know what this all meant but the patients too. In addition to signing this and that and being given this and that, patients were now being given HIPAA paperwork explaining what it was and what their rights were. They also had to sign something saying they received that in particular.
Many of the policies that did not deal directly with the patient records and how they can be accessed were regarding the best practices or the proper ways for thing to take place. Like the aforementioned patient paging and medical charts. Other systems include sign in sheets for handing out HIPAA forms, keeping other documents confidential, and a system to alert staff to changes made in a record.
HIPAA consulting has helped the medical industry adapt to the ever changing world that we live in. With the addition of HIPAA laws the records and record keeping policies became a safe haven for patient privacy like it should have been all along. These changes were difficult to adapt to and if not for the consulting agencies it would have been a very long road indeed.
Anytime a big change comes down the pipeline there will be growing pains. This is true for any industry and it was also true for the medical industry as well. The changes that took place were big. One of the reasons it was so difficult for the medical industry to catch on to what HIPAA was and required was because many doctors do not know the first thing about insurance, how it works, or any of the other paperwork involved in their office.
When patients are visiting the doctor they must be told about their rights. This is one of the big changes that took place. Staff is required to show patients paperwork detailing what their rights are and they are required to sign it. By doing so it shows that the doctors office has done its job by giving the patient their required forms and information about their rights.
It is important for patients to be given their rights and information because when the act was first introduced it was a bit confusing to professionals and doctors and the average patient would need some help to understand what exactly was involved in the act. This was very important because it effected the patients the most.
One of the biggest new changes was that before any medical information was to be shared with any other agencies for any reason, the patient must give express written consent for the communication to take place. In the past only a faxed request or written request from the doctor would do. Today all the power rests with the patient.
It was not just the doctors and the staff that needed to know what this all meant but the patients too. In addition to signing this and that and being given this and that, patients were now being given HIPAA paperwork explaining what it was and what their rights were. They also had to sign something saying they received that in particular.
Many of the policies that did not deal directly with the patient records and how they can be accessed were regarding the best practices or the proper ways for thing to take place. Like the aforementioned patient paging and medical charts. Other systems include sign in sheets for handing out HIPAA forms, keeping other documents confidential, and a system to alert staff to changes made in a record.
HIPAA consulting has helped the medical industry adapt to the ever changing world that we live in. With the addition of HIPAA laws the records and record keeping policies became a safe haven for patient privacy like it should have been all along. These changes were difficult to adapt to and if not for the consulting agencies it would have been a very long road indeed.
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