Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Benefits for Consumers and Providers

Health Policy - HIPAA
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Health Policy – HIPAA
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
HIPAA has the potential to improve communication between consumers and providers. HIPAA, a policy at the federal level, is basically designed to make it simpler for people to keep health insurance. In addition, it is aimed at protecting the security as well as confidentiality of the patient’s medical information (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2014). HIPAA necessitates the protection of individually identifiable health information which is maintained or transmitted in whichever medium or form. HIPAA Privacy Rule essentially provides a crucial privacy rights as well as protection standard for patients as regards their health information. According to the Department of Health (2014), the privacy rules of HIPAA affect the everyday business operations of healthcare institutions that maintain patients’ personal health information.
HIPAA can improve communication between consumers and providers since it allows providers to communicate with their patients electronically, for instance via e-mail, as l...