The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
(HIPAA) prompted new Federal regulations which make it mandatory for physicians to protect the privacy and security of patients' medical information and using a standard format when submitting electronic transactions, such as submitting claims to payers. Please visit the HIPAA pages of the CMS website for additional information.

HIPAA Health Insurance Reform
Title I of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. Please visit the CMS site to find out about pre-existing conditions and portability of health insurance coverage.

HIPAA Administrative Simplification
The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) require the Department of Health and Human Services to establish national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. It also addresses the security and privacy of health data. Adopting these standards will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in health care. More information is available at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/

Visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Web site to view:

• Full text of the Privacy Rule: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/finalreg.html
• Frequently Asked Questions, Guidance, and other helpful documents: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/

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Additional Links and Information

• National Provider Standard (NPI)
• National Provider Identifier (NPI) to be required for all health care providers... announcement
• File a HIPAA complaint with the AMA
• HIPAA Contacts at Blue Cross/Blue Shield
• Is your software vendor HIPAA ready? View a directory at: www.hipaa.org/pmsdirectory
• HHS Office of Civil Rights issues detailed guidance on Privacy Rule. Read the document
• CMS government website with official interpretation of HIPAA regulations at www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa
• Submit questions to HHS Office of Civil Rights about Privacy at OCRprivacy@hhs.gov
• Submit questions to CMS about Electronic Transactions at AskHIPAA@cms.hhs.gov
• Georgetown University’s Health Privacy Project includes summaries of health privacy statutes listed state by state www.healthprivacy.org