Many different things have impacted the medical community in recent
years including technological changes that have facilitated greater
communications and medical discoveries. From a legislative perspective,
the enactment of HIPPA rules and regulations by far is one of the most
impactful. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), HIPPA
"brings the most sweeping changes to healthcare since the creation of
Before discussing the changes it is first critical to analyze what
exactly HIPPA is. HIPPA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996, also known as Public Law 104-191 (HIPPA Group,
2002). HIPPA has accomplished the following related to healthcare:
â–ª Ensures access to health insurance, and also guarantees portability
â–ª Provides continuity of healthcare insurance coverage and prevents
and strictly prohibits discrimination
â–ª Works to protect confidential health information and medical records
â–ª Enables patients to have more control over their records
â–ª Self employed persons are allowed health insurance tax deductions
â–ª Provides for better healthcare efficiencies
HIPPA has affected the healthcare industry in a variety of ways. One
manner in which it has impacted health providers is in the way they conduct
business electronically. E based business and services are becoming
increasingly popular in part due to the internet. Healthcare organizations
can now share information about patients, store records and share insight
related to patient conditions via electronic communications. As anyone
knows however, due to security issues and ease of hacker access on the
internet, it has become increasingly important that healthcare transactions
be monitored from a safety and privacy perspective.
HIPPA legisl...