Introduction to HIPAA

Hi there & welcome to HIPAA Training with Accountable. This required training must be completed by any employee with access to protected health information. It shouldn't take too long to finish but there is a quiz at the end, so be sure to pay close attention. First things first, what is HIPAA? HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Simply put, it is a federal law that was enacted on August 21, 1996, to reform and modernize the flow of information within the healthcare system. The first main purpose of HIPAA is to enhance privacy and to provide security for protected health information, or PHI. Another goal was to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system overall. And lastly, HIPAA was designed to establish standards for accessing, storing, and transmitting medical data and ensuring the security and privacy of PHI. The next video will cover the Privacy Rule which defines what is considered protected health information about an individual and specifies what restrictions are placed on who may use, disclose or access that information. The Security Rule, on the other hand, refers to how this information must be safeguarded through a system of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for electronic protected health information. We'll explain these three safeguards and more in the second video. The last video will cover the most recent additions to HIPAA. The HITECH Act and the Omnibus Rule have been passed to improve healthcare information technology, impose stronger regulations and increase compliance with HIPAA by the required parties. This four-step video course is designed to help you understand all the basic elements of HIPAA. This was just a quick overview, we'll get into more detail in later sections. Good luck & see you in the next video! ‍