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.
Consultants were called in all over the country to assist various offices and doctors all over. In some cases they needed to revamp the entire operation just to make sure it would be compliant. Fines were being levied against offices that did not comply and they were not cheap either. It was in every bodies best interests to get everything up to speed.
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.
People thought this would be just another form to hand out and boy were they mistaken. HIPAA consulting might have saved the medical industry from taking five large steps in the wrong direction. As difficult as it all may have been we as patients are all better for it. We no longer will have issues with the wrong people getting our records. IT is even difficult for us to get our own sometimes, but that is a good thing because it is that hard or harder for everyone else.
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.
Consultants were called in all over the country to assist various offices and doctors all over. In some cases they needed to revamp the entire operation just to make sure it would be compliant. Fines were being levied against offices that did not comply and they were not cheap either. It was in every bodies best interests to get everything up to speed.
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.
People thought this would be just another form to hand out and boy were they mistaken. HIPAA consulting might have saved the medical industry from taking five large steps in the wrong direction. As difficult as it all may have been we as patients are all better for it. We no longer will have issues with the wrong people getting our records. IT is even difficult for us to get our own sometimes, but that is a good thing because it is that hard or harder for everyone else.
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