HIPPA COMPLIANT

szemcumo

Please help...first time out...to be HIPPA compliant...what does that mean other than making sure medical records are keep separate, ee's get privacy notices....do you have to send in a report as to what your policies are and if so what and to whom... just not sure what all is required.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Pork

SZEMCUMO: I know of no law that requires you to send any report of a complaint; however, I would investigate the complaint and follow my good judgement in "how to handle a HIPPAA alledged incident.

To be able to provide more detail guidance I would need more clarifying information.

PORK

mushroomHR

If you are an employer with a fully-funded health insurance plan and all you do is enroll/terminate employees from the plan you do not need to be HIPAA compliant. Information you receive from an employee for FML, STD, workers' comp. reasons, etc. is not PHI and HIPAA does not come into play. You still need to keep this information confidential. However, if you administer a self-insured health plan or receive more than summary information pertaining to your health plan, or act in any way on behalf of your health plan you must be HIPAA compliant.

HRQ

mushroomHR - I think this might be the most simple explanation I've seen on who should put together a HIPAA program. I've been unsure, but this helped me. We are fully funded, I only handle the enrollment process, facilitate application for disability benefits and document the FMLA process.

Thank you.

Pork

It used to be that I had to act as a message boy between the carrier and the ee. Thanks to HIPAA I can no longer act or get involved. If it is wrong, I can only sic'um on the carrier and our corporate HR. 99% of the time the problem was the failure of the ee to respond to the carrier for additional information. Thank you HIPAA!

PORK

mushroomHR

Pork: You can still get involved in resolving employee's problems with the carrier. If the employer's access (as plan sponsor) to PHI was limited to what it received from employees who requested help getting various medical bills/claims paid, the employer, according to HIPAA privacy rules, would NOT be covered by HIPAA. Of course you would still need to keep this information confidential. As I have found out as well it usually is the fault of the employee by not responding to the carrier. I always tell my employees to contact the carrier themselves to try to resolve the problem. Then if they can't get it resolved I tell them to see me and I'll see what I can do.

mwild31

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-10-03 AT 04:14PM (CST)[/font][p]I've had luck with contacting my health insurance company. They had an ERISA attorney come out & train our sup's & managers. You can always try that route. Also, doesn't ever hurt to read the reg's.

AJ SPHR

It's HIPAA, HIPAA, HIPAA - there aren't two "P"'s in HIPAA!!!

Sorry, I'm done with my mini-rant. Back to your regular programming!

p.s. also agree with the other poster who stated that if you're fully insured, there is minimal impact due to HIPAA.