What is the HIPAA Privacy rule, and why does it affect IT professionals?

Solution:

The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other personal health information and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.

IT affects it by these ways:

The HIPAA Privacy Rule for the first time creates national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other personal health information.

• It gives patients more control over their health information.

• It sets boundaries on the use and release of health records.

• It establishes appropriate safeguards that health care providers and others must achieve to protect the privacy of health information.

• It holds violators accountable, with civil and criminal penalties that can be imposed if they violate patients' privacy rights.

• And it strikes a balance when public responsibility supports disclosure of some forms of data - for example, to protect public health.

This takes for patient.

• It enables patients to find out how their information may be used, and about certain disclosures of their information that have been made.

• It generally limits release of information to the minimum reasonably needed for the purpose of the disclosure.

• It generally gives patients the right to examine and obtain a copy of their own health records and request corrections.