Overview of Bayhealth and HIPAA

The intent of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act bill (HIPAA) is to combat waste, fraud and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, improve access to long term care services and coverage, and to simplify the administration of health insurance. It protects the security and privacy of physical and electronic personal health information.

HIPAA, (Public Law 104-191) covers a wide spectrum of healthcare concerns. To summarize, the law can be divided into two areas:

1. It expands health insurance portability (COBRA), sets limits on pre-existing condition clauses for insurance, established tax deductions for medical accounts, and expands the provisions for investigating Medicare fraud and abuse.
2. Requires all health care organizations to participate in Administrative Simplification. Improve efficiency and effectiveness by standardizing the electronic exchange of data and protect security and privacy of transmitted data.

BAYHEALTH HIPAA ACTIVITIES
Bayhealth Medical Center has taken a proactive approach to complying with the HIPAA regulations.

The HIPAA Steering Committee was established in April 2000. Under its guidance, a HIPAA assessment and gap analysis was completed in early 2001. As a result of the gap analysis several processes at Bayhealth Medical Center have already changed. There are more changes to come. Currently three committees are working to meet compliance by the federally mandated deadlines.