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HIPAA Resource Center

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a wide-ranging effort to simplify the administrative burden faced by the health care industry. One provision of this law, administrative simplification, will standardize the electronic transmission of health data and facilitate the transition from paper to electronic claims. The law requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt national standards for identifiers, transactions, claims attachments, health data privacy and security and medical records.

HIPAA News

• MGMA members respond to a Legislative and Executive Advocacy Response Network (LEARN) questionnaire regarding the, "HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosures Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; Request for Information." Download the research findings
  
  Using the LEARN research, MGMA submitted formal comments to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that highlighted five critical issues and concerns:
  • The administrative burden on physician practices;
  • The low volume of current patient requests for accounting reports;
  • The burdensome and unnecessary accounting for treatment disclosures; 
  • The burdensome and unnecessary accounting for payment and healthcare operations disclosures; and
  • The rule’s discouraging effect on physician practice adoption of EHRs.
    
      
• Key HIPAA privacy and security provisions in the economic stimulus package
    
• Washington Link: New privacy requirements in effect - What it means for your practice, MGMA Connexion April 2010
  MGMA Connexion, April 2010
  
  
• Washington Link: The new privacy breach notification rule
  MGMA Connexion, Nov-Dec 2009
  
  
• MGMA comments on HITECH Breach Notification Interim Final Rule
  Oct. 23, 2009
  
  
• HHS Office of Civil Rights: Breach Notification Rule
  August 2009
  • HHS Breach Guidance
    
    
• Economic stimulus package means landmark EHR incentives
  MGMA Connexion, May-June 2009
  
  
• CMS publishes HIPAA 5010 information
  April 30, 2009
  
  
• Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act
  Includes guidance from HHS regarding technologies and methodologies that make protected health information unusable, unreadable or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals. 
  April 17, 2009
  
  
• Summary of MGMA's concerns and recommendations for implementing ICD-10-CM and 5010
  

About HIPAA

• HIPAA Glossary
• Download the HIPAA regulations and public comments

HHS FAQs on:

• Transactions final rule
• National Provider Identifier
• National Employer Identifier
• Security
• Medical Privacy  

Additional HIPAA Resources on the Web

On-demand Webinars

• Are you ready for the new HIPAA privacy and security mandates?

Government Sites

• Department of Health and Human Services  
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services  
• National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics
• Office for Civil Rights

Standards Developing Organizations

• American Dental Association  
• Health Level Seven  
• National Council for Prescription Drug Programs  
• National Uniform Billing Committee  
• National Uniform Claim Committee
• American National Standards Institute  

HIPAA Electronic Transactions Implementation Guides 

Washington Publishing Company

Strategic National Implementation Process

How is the industry responding? Strategic National Implementation Process (SNIP) is an industry solution to the very real, very practical issues of interpretation and work flow inconsistencies surrounding implementation of the HIPAA standards. SNIP is a collaborative opportunity for early implementers to assure their interpretation is 'correct' (the industry 'best fit') and not another proprietary solution. The deliverables include level-setting expectations and working implemented baseline standards. As a sub-group of the Workgroup for EDI (WEDI), SNIP is a collaborative health care industry-wide process resulting in the implementation of standards and furthering the development and implementation of future standards. The WEDI HIPAA SNIP Task Group has been established to meet the immediate need to assess the industry-wide HIPAA Administrative Simplification implementation readiness and to bring about the national coordination necessary for successful compliance. SNIP targeted deliverables:

• Recommended schedule for addressing the transactions
• Issues, decisions and rationale, recommendations for industry 
• Identified education opportunities
• Identified security tools, techniques
• Best practice recommendations
• Web site to relay information 
• Getting the word out with speaking opportunities
• On-going outreach to HIPAA implementers
• Additional WEDI SNIP meetings, briefings

To learn more about SNIP or to become involved visit the Web site.