The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

The HIPPA was enacted with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the American healthcare system. The Act c omprises of administrative simplification, privacy, security, and enforcement provisions. The administrative simplification provision serves the purpose of empowering the United States ( U . S ) Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in standardizing electronic health transactions, code sets, unique identifiers and security (OCR , 2017) . The privacy provision, on the other hand, sets national standards protecting individuals from their identifiable information being disclosed during electronic health care transactions. The privacy provisions of HIPPA appl ies to health plans, health providers, and healthcare clearinghouses . The security provisions of HIPPA go further to set national standards with regards to the protection of the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of protected electronic information. Finally, the enforcement provisions set national standards for the implementation of administrative simplification rules in addition to strengthening the Act’s privacy and security provision s. Being a respiratory therapist, I can attest to the importance of HIPPA in healthcare. 

All the provisions of HIPPA are enforced at the federal level. Specifically, HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is the primary agency tasked with the responsibility of enforcing the privacy and security provisions of HIPPA. The OCR enforces HIPPA in three ways ; by conducting educational and outreach programs to enhance compliance with HIPPA security and privacy rules; carrying out compliance reviews to confirm compliance on the part of covered entities; and by investigating and discharging off all complaints filed with it (OCR, 2017) . In case of criminal violations of HIPPA, OCR has the mandate to refer such violations to the Department of Justice (DOJ ). The DOJ subsequently carries out further investigation and prosecut es . HIPPA’s administrative simplification provisions on the hand are enforced and administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Specifically , the CMS enforces Transactions and Code Sets Standard, Employer Identification Standard and National Provider Identification Standard (OCR, 2017) .

References 

Office for Civil Rights (OCR). (2017). HIPAA for professionals . Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/index.html