The HIPAA Program Reference Handbook

Management and IT professionals in the healthcare arena face the fear of the unknown: they fear that their massive efforts to comply with HIPAA requirements may not be enough, because they still do not know how compliance will be tested and measured. No one has been able to clearly explain to them the ramifications of HIPAA. Until now. The HIPAA Program Reference Handbook explains all aspects of HIPAA including system design, implementation, compliance, liability, transactions, security, and privacy, focusing on pragmatic action instead of theoretic approaches. The book is organized into five parts. The first discusses programs and processes, covering program design and implementation, a review of legislation, human dynamics, the roles of Chief Privacy and Chief Security Officers, and many other foundational issues. The Handbook continues by analyzing product policy, technology, and process standards, and what entities need to do to reach compliance. It then focuses on HIPAA legal impacts, including liability associated with senior management and staff within an organization. A section on transactions and interactions discusses the intricacies of the transaction types, standards, methods, and implementations required by HIPAA, covering the flow of payments and patient information among healthcare and service providers, payers, agencies, and other organizations. The book concludes with a discussion of security and privacy that analyzes human and machine requirements, interface issues, functions, and various aspects of technology required to meet HIPAA mandates.

The Privacy Rule Complaint Process.

Front cover -- Contributors -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I -- Programs and Processes -- Chapter 1 -- The Roles and Responsibilities -- Introduction -- Setting the Record Straight -- Defining the Asset in Question -- The Beginning of All Things HIPAA -- The Privacy Roles: Chief Privacy Official -- Training Requirements -- Training Follow-Through -- Safeguards -- The Privacy Roles: Patient Complaint Ombudsman -- The Security Role: The Chief Security Official -- Tasks and Actions: What the CSO Must Do -- Policy, Process, and Procedure -- Security Management Program -- Step One: Risk Analysis -- Step Two: Risk Management -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Glossary of Definitions applicable to the Security Function in 45 CFR 164.304: -- Chapter 2 -- The Final HIPAA Security Rule Is Here! Now What? -- Introduction -- HIPAA Arrives on the Scene -- The Rule-Making Process -- The Security Objectives of the Final Rule Did Not Change Substantially -- Privacy Rule Requirements for Security -- The Final HIPAA Security Rule -- Let's Just Be Reasonable -- The Security Standards -- Changes to the Proposed Standards in the Final Rule -- Administrative Safe…