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The Business of
Health Care Report
The Act, known as HIPAA for short, focuses on improving efficiency
in health care delivery and protecting the confidentiality and security of health information. Hospitals, insurers,
physicians and their business partners are impacted by these regulations, including employers providing health benefits
for their employees. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services
modified one provision of the Act. The modification dropped a requirement that health care providers obtain written
consent from patients before using or disclosing medical information for treatment, the payment of claims or any of
a long list of (quote) "health care operations." Examples of health care operations include setting insurance premiums
and measuring the competence of doctors. Health and Human Services' Secretary Tommy Thompson said the process of
obtaining consent could have "serious unintended consequences" that could delay treatment and wanted to alter this provision. Under the rules, health care providers would still have to notify
patients of their rights and the providers' disclosure policies. Patients would be asked to acknowledge in writing that
they had received such notice, but could receive care without the acknowledgment. The task of bringing organizations into compliance with HIPAA is
daunting with costs for staff training and documentation, resources and information systems investment expected to
exceed Y2K preparation. Deadlines for compliance are phased-in over several years. While
deadlines remain relatively constant, the federal government continues to change the regulations. The first deadline was
October 2002 for complying with the regulations governing electronic claims submission, although a one-year extension is
an option. The deadline for complying with privacy regulations is April 14, 2003. The changes announced by Secretary Thompson have sparked heated
debate among various stakeholder groups, and more is certain to take place as HIPAA continues to unfold. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO Doug
Hawthorne with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio
1080 KRLD.
©
2002 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 