Hipaa

The Health Portability and Accountability Act is a law enacted in the United States on August of 1996 geared towards the protection of the insurance coverage of employees and their families in the event that they lose their jobs. In fact, in its second section, promotes the needed efficiency and effectiveness in providing health care through the extensive use of electronic data interchange especially in the health care systems. Overall, this law protects the confidentiality of an individual’s health information at the same time setting the national standards for protection this information leading to an improved patient safety and well-being.

The HIPAA protects the employer and his family in the following aspects:

• Limit the exclusions of preexisting medical conditions that are otherwise not covered in the past usual insurance plan
• Provide new rights for individuals who may have lost their previous health coverage or enroll new beneficiaries such as a wife or a child
• Giving credit when maximum allowed preexisting medical condition is not reached or provide certificates from previous plans when new plan is chosen
• Disallow discrimination against employees in enrollment and in premiums basing solely on health-related reasons and factors
• Ensure availability of health insurance coverage even for small employers and renewal of such coverage
• Preserve the state’s power and role over health insurance regulation including its authority to allow greater protection than those otherwise stipulated in the federal law

Special enrolment rights are especially made for those who may lose their health coverage due to situations such as divorce, death, termination of employment, separation and reduction of hours. Most of these reasons are unavoidable facets of life that would prove hard for the citizens should they lose their health insurance coverage. Likewise, addition of beneficiaries is also provided in the even of marriage, and adoption or birth of a child.

The anti-discrimination clause protects all health insurance coverage owners a sense of security that their hard-earned payments for coverage are not going to waste for reasons related to health. It ensures that no one will be denied of benefit, charged more than the usual or ultimately excluded in the coverage based on these reasons alone. It is a way for the government to curb certain practices by insurance firms that will leave the employees at a disadvantage.

Such provisions in this law have helped shape how physicians and medical centers operate. There were major revamps and changes in the usual processes that have proven to be beneficial not only to the patients but to the health service providers as well. The main goal of this law is to provide portability and continuity to their health coverage and it has been successful in that aspect.