The federal HIPAA laws go into effect on April 14, and officials at Tyrone Area Hospital say they will be compliant when the day arrives.
\nHIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act, is a law that governs the use and release of a patient\u2019s personal health information, also known as \u201cprotected health information.\u201d The HIPAA privacy regulations establish a minimum acceptable threshold for the use and release of a patient\u2019s health information.
\n\u201cPatient privacy has always been a top priority at Tyrone Hospital,\u201d said Thomas Bartlett, chief executive officer of TAH. \u201cAll hospital staff \u2013 from our physicians, nurses, office personnel and volunteers \u2013 are dedicated to protecting our patients\u2019 privacy.
\n\u201cThe regulations affect how the hospital can respond to inquiries from people in the community, the media, contractors and business associates.\u201d
\nAccording to George Semko, chief financial officer at TAHS, under the HIPAA regulations, patients must be informed about how their PHI will be used and given the opportunity to object to or restrict the use or release of their information.
\n\u201cHospitals may use and disclose PHI without the patient\u2019s consent for purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations,\u201d said Semko. \u201cIn addition, the HIPAA privacy regulations have specific provisions for the release of limited information about the patient without the patient\u2019s authorization when someone specifically asks about the patient by name.\u201d
\nTo allow the hospital to reach compliance with the federal standards, Tyrone Hospital employed the services of Parente Randolph, a large Pennsylvania accounting firm, to provide a GAP analysis for where Tyrone Hospital was compared to where it needed to be.
\nHe said the analysis was done on a department-by-department basis and it has amended its processes as necessary.
\nHe said the hospital also engaged the services of the Raytheon Corporation to perform another GAP analysis based upon the security and privacy regulations.
\n\u201cWe have already taken strategic steps to insure the privacy of our patients and the patient identifiable data by changing how we register patients (social security number and birthday verses name only),\u201d said Semko, \u201cthis is for HIPAA and safety reasons. We are setting up business associate agreements with our vendors to insure they are in compliance as well. We no longer list our patients\u2019 names in the local newspaper.\u201d
\nSemko said the hospital has already purchased new computer servers and software to provide a greater level of security for the storage and access to patient identifiable data.
\nHe says based on the information he has seen, the hospital will be in compliance.
\n\u201cBased on a review of Tyrone Hospital by outside consultants, the hospital has plans and structures in place to meet the HIPAA regulations,\u201d said Semko. \u201cEducation for hospital employees and the community is part of the preparation.\u201d
\nSo, what does HIPAA do? Four things.
\n\u2022Gives patents more control over their health information.
\n\u2022Sets boundaries on the use\/release of health information.
\n\u2022Establishes safegaurds that hospitals, physicians, health plans and clearinghouses (\u201dcovered entities\u201d) and their business associates must have in place to protect the privacy of health information.
\n\u2022Holds violators accountable with civil and criminal penalties if they violate a patient\u2019s privacy rights.
\nAccording to Semko, with the deadline for compliance quickly approaching, it is important to remember that compliance with HIPAA regulations is \u201ctruly\u201d an ongoing process to keep patient identifiable information in its proper place and to respect the confidentiality of information and protect patients\u2019 rights.
\n\u201cThese HIPAA regulations are now part of the ongoing regulatory compliance picture for the hospital,\u201d said Semko.
\nHospitals and healthcare providers can face fines from $50,000 to $250,000 in fines and\/or one to 10 years in prison per occurrence of violation. This, according to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, is based on whether or not the disclosure is made under false pretenses or if there is intent to sell, transfer, or use patient information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The federal HIPAA laws go into effect on April 14, and officials at Tyrone Area Hospital say they will be compliant when the day arrives. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act, is a law that governs the use and release of a patient\u2019s personal health information, also known as \u201cprotected health information.\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}