Importance of HIPAA in Healthcare

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a legislation that was
passed in 1996 with the primary goal of ensuring that individuals do not lose their health
insurance when they are in-between jobs (Karne et al., 2021). However, it had many other
provisions that have proved to be of great benefit to healthcare in general. For instance, by
requiring healthcare organizations to record, store, and transfer healthcare data electronically,
HIPAA was instrumental in facilitating the transition from paper records to electronic records
in healthcare. The use of electronic records has helped to streamline, ease, and significantly
increase the efficiency of administrative functions in healthcare (Karne et al., 2021). As a
result, healthcare professionals now have more time to care for patients and improve their
health outcomes.

The other major benefit of HIPAA has been increasing the security of patients’
healthcare information. By restricting access to sensitive healthcare data and information of
patients, HIPAA has helped patients to have greater control over their healthcare. Granted,
before HIPAA was passed, healthcare organizations often strived to keep patients’ data
private by restricting who could access the information. However, there were no serious
repercussions for failing to safeguard sensitive healthcare information of patients. As a result,
unauthorized third parties could access sensitive personal and health information without any
consequences.

HIPAA has also had major implications for billing and coding. The Act formalized
the use of CPT and HCPCS for codes for procedural reporting and ICD codes for diagnosis
reporting (Karne et al., 2021). These codes that HIPAA formalized are the ones that are

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currently used for medical billing and coding. For instance, HIPAA’s Title II provides the
format that medical billers and coders use to process and submit claims (Karne et al., 2021).

References

Karne, S., Alappan, R., DTCD, D., Klebonis, D., & Donelson, B. (2021). Basics about
HIPAA for Physicians. This Inaugural Issue of JAAPI is Dedicated to the following
Legendary Indian Physicians, 1(1), 51-55.