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What is HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as Kassebaum-Kennedy, after the two senators who spearheaded the bill. Passed in 1996 to help people buy and keep health insurance, even when they have serious health conditions, the law sets basic requirements that health plans must meet. Since states can and have modified and expanded upon these provisions, consumers' protections vary from state to state.
HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) required the creation of a Privacy Rule for identifiable health information. The resultant Privacy Rule, finalized in August 2002, sets a compliance date of April 14, 2003.
While, HIPAA does not address medical transcription or medical transcriptionists directly, it does, however, state that any business or individual who provides services to a “Covered Entity” (hospital, clinic, etc.) will be deemed to be a “Business Associate” for HIPAA purposes if they access PHI during the course of their work. Business Associates must take steps, and document those steps, to secure and keep confidential the PHI while it is in their custody.
As your business partner, Vareque will mirror the responsibilities you have as a Business Associate and can even help you achieve HIPAA compliance. Three of the most important features of the proposed regulations, as they relate to medical transcription cover the subjects of transmission, protection and accountability of PHI – the “chain of trust”.
Transmission:
The V-E2E technology a secure, fully encrypted transmission of PHI. Currently, the following secure formats are in operation, all of which ensure 128-bit encryption - SSL secure HTTP and IP lockdown.
Protection:
Vareque takes a multi-faceted approach to protection of PHI while in its domain. Physically, our database and technology platform is housed in Kentucky under management contract with IX technologies. Access to data by company personnel and third party contractors is controlled both by clear protocols and contracts detailing privacy requirements as well as sophisticated username/password rule-sets which ensure clear data segregation and limited access as required solely to perform work required.
Accountability:
All employees and contractors are trained on privacy requirements and compliance is ensured via signed contract and ongoing audit procedures. Our proprietary V-E2E provides a detailed IP audit trail for every individual transaction, enabling our partners, users and us to manage compliance with its privacy procedures at each step of the transcription process.
Feel Free to contact us for a free demonstration of this leading edge communication solution at Contact@vareque.com .
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