Free Essay On Training

1. What is HIPAA and how does it affect me as an employee?Essentially, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) refers to a law that seeks to help individuals keep health insurance, safeguard the security and confidentiality of healthcare information, and assist the healthcare industry control unnecessary administrative costs (Herold and Beaver, 2013). Specifically, this law affects employees in the sense that it obliges me to protect or respect patient rights by ensuring that I do not violate the confidentiality or privacy of patient information (Herold and Beaver, 2013).2. What is the Notice of Privacy Practices, who gets a copy and what does it cover?Notice of Privacy Practices refers to a notification healthcare providers give patients informing them of how they ought to share and use health information as well as how they can apply their health privacy rights. One gets a copy during their first visit to a provider or through mail from their health insurer. Essentially, it covers individual healthcare information (Herold and Beaver, 2013).
3. What is protected health information?Ideally, it covers sensitive information such as drug and alcohol abuse, mental health, and communicable disease information. In all cases, it applied to all medical information whether in written or digital form (Herold and Beaver, 2013).4. How do patients obtain copies of records?
Patients may get printed copies of their records upon visiting their healthcare providers. Alternatively, patients can also receive copied through mail (Axzo Press, 2008).
5. What is the purpose of a confidentiality agreement and why do I have to sign one as an employee?
This is an agreement that outlines the practice’s policies, especially in regards to security and privacy of personal information. Employees need to sign this agreement to underline their commitment to maintaining confidentiality of all information accessed in the course of their employment (Axzo Press, 2008). 6. What is included in a confidentiality agreement?
The agreement includes conditions under which protected health information can be released and the ones that cannot be released (Axzo Press, 2008).

References

 Axzo Press (2008). HIPAA training and certification: Job-role-based compliance + certblaster & cbt, instructor's edition (ilt). New York: Axzo Press
Herold, R. and Beaver, K. (2013). The practical guide to HIPAA privacy and security compliance. London: Cambridge University Press.