| Q:
Who is required to comply with HIPAA regulations?
Created: December 27, 2002
A: The simple answer to this
question is that there are a great number of industries, groups, and professions
that are required to comply with different aspects of HIPAA legislation.
For instance, HIPAA's Title I - Health Insurance Reform requires that
insurance companies and employers meet a certain set of regulations pertaining
to the portability of personal health insurance. Title II of HIPAA, known
as the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act, requires that the
following groups comply with certain regulations.
- health care providers
- health care clearinghouses
- health plans
The Administrative Simplification
Compliance Act requires that health care providers that submit health
insurance claims electronically have computer systems that can perform
that function using established HIPAA transaction standards and code sets.
If the health care provider uses a computer system that submits claims
electronically and does not follow the appropriate transaction standards,
the health care provider is subject to penalties for noncompliance. However,
the software company that made the software is not subject to those same
HIPAA regulations or penalties.
In most cases, vendors that
provide equipment and services to organizations that need to be HIPAA
compliant are not themselves subject to those same HIPAA regulations.
In addition, there is no government
organization or standards body that will certify that a vendor's product
or service is "HIPAA compliant". So any claims to that effect
are made solely by the vendor.
SpectraSoft is making every
effort to ensure that our products have the functionality necessary to
help you meet the demands of complying with HIPAA regulations. We are
continually adding new features to our products and monitoring proposed
HIPAA rules to make sure that our products stay ahead of changes that
could impact your business.
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