Hipaa Certification For Better Healthcare

By Author: Tasha Cherry
Total Articles: 49
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HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This is an Act that has been legislated by the US government to give protection to the patients' privacy and create uniform standards in the distribution and transfer of patient information. The Act also aims at ensuring that all people have access to quality health care and insurance coverage. HIPAA has set up new standards for the transfer and dissemination of patient information among healthcare providers as well as between healthcare providers and insurance companies. Since standards have been established, it is very important for the healthcare providers and insurance companies to be well versed in them. The certification to ensure this is called HIPAA certification.

HIPAA Certification Guidelines

HIPAA standards can be divided into three categories - administrative, privacy and security. The administrative standards deal with the effectiveness of data (mostly electronic) and the way in which it is transferred for administrative and financial purposes. This includes administrative purposes of both healthcare providers and insurance companies. ...
... The privacy standard or rule allows patients to demand and view their own personal health records. Before this rule, patients could be denied the right to see this information. The final standard is for providing security to the data. Organizations are required to draw up and implement procedures to protect private medical information as well as administration related information.

HIPAA certification has several levels - Certified HIPAA Associate, Certified HIPAA Professional, Certified HIPAA Security Specialist, Certified HIPAA Administrator, etc. HIPAA certification requires proper training. The Act makes it mandatory for all the employees of healthcare providers to be well trained in HIPAA guidelines and standards. This is to ensure compliance. HIPAA training is also mandatory for insurance companies, doctors, business associates of the healthcare providers or insurance companies and all other agencies that are associated with healthcare in one way or another. There are many companies and websites that offer training programs for HIPAA certification. The training can be arranged as per the requirement of the companies involved. The training is usually divided into modules and each of these modules is comprehensive in the topic dealt with. Once the training is completed, the students can appear for the HIPAA exam and get the certification. The examination takes place in an
online format and it can be taken at any time of the day on all days of the week. The exams for the different levels of HIPAA each concentrate on different aspects, depending on the kind of certification sought.

With the implementation of HIPAA, the healthcare provider and insurance agencies now have to be more careful when it comes to patient privacy violation. If there is a complaint and the charges are found to be true, the violator could be sentenced to as many as five years in the State penitentiary.

All stakeholders in the healthcare industry are advised to check the company or website that provides the training for the program. Always ensure that all important aspects are covered. The HIPAA certification training can be taken by an individual or by a group too. Depending on the number of trainees, they can log on and get trained for the certification. Without the HIPAA certification, it becomes very risky, almost impossible, to work in the healthcare field.

www.hipaaexams.com is a good website offering HIPAA certification training. The site offers comprehensive training for both individual and group users.