Question

Identify a minimum of three HIPAA confidentiality regulations that applies to medical transcription. What are the consequences of not being compliant?

Answer 1

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a privacy rule or policy or act passed on 1996. It's main focus is securing the privacy of medical records and information of the patient. It is one of the kep components on the rules and regulations or agreement policy for a medical transcriptionist for maintaining the privacy of the health records and not to diclose it any cost which might lead to legal penalties if the transcriptionist do not follow the HIPAA guidelines. It focus on maintaining the PHI- Protected Health Information.

The main role of HIPAA is to provide health insurance to the individuals even when they are unemployed ans consist of a sector called the administration simplification which give the power for the patient to handle their records ,and usage of their personal records which is a great set back for the medical transcriptionist.

Medical transcriptionist are healthcare professionals who convert the voice or text or notes of the patient's record from a doctor or nurse or physician or during a procedure and format and edit them into documents. As medical transcriptionist has direct source of health information about the patients they should maintain the compliance of the HIPAA which has many regulations which has been listed below.

1. All jobs requires an agreement policy which is a self acceptance and accountable policy both from employer and employee stating that they have read the guidelines and aware of it and will adhere to it. So a proper compliance agreement policy should exist between the employer and the employee before hiring.

2. As it is a job that deals with manual transcription of the audio and text file into formatted documents which can be done on laptop or computer, one must make sure that their work space,environment or laptop is safe and secure.

3. Make sure that only the employer and only one specific employee or transcriptionist is able to access the files assigned to them.

4. No discussion of the treatment or diagnosis or records with any third parties.

If th individuals fail to adhere to the compliance guidelines they might have some of the following consequences

1. Legal penalty with wide range of cost

2. Revocation of transcriptionist privileges