Your visit to the doctor now contains a page where you sign that you acknowledge that the physician’s office has notified you about their compliance with HIPAA laws. More often than not, you probably read through quickly or barely skim the authorization form before signing it. However, HIPAA laws are important, and they are in place to protect you from identity theft, being denied care, and/or health insurance coverage.
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, enacted in 1996. HIPAA laws created a new national standard in protecting your health information. As you see different physicians or become admitted to different hospitals, your health information should follow you. HIPAA delineates the need to properly protect your health information as it flows through to these different channels. As more and more transactions are completed electronically these days, HIPAA laws focus on the protection of your health information specifically through these channels.
So what does HIPAA protect? For you, HIPAA protects personally identifiable health information, such as your Social Security number, birth date, address, etc., as well as current, past, or even future physical and/or mental conditions or treatment. Such information may not be disclosed except for specific uses. Information that […]
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Of all the employment issues we advise our clients on, the subject of proper hiring practices is becoming more and more critical. Just the other day in Des Moines, Iowa, 390 people were arrested for immigration violations at a meatpacking plant. According to ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) this was the largest workplace raid in US history. The Associated Press reports that the raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers, and people who are in the country illegally.While the politicians wrestle with what to do about illegal immigrants, Homeland Security has announced a “comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy for the nation’s interior.” In 2007 alone ICE “dramatically increased penalties against employers whose hiring processes violate the law, securing fines and judgments of more than $30 million while making 863 criminal arrests and 4,077 administrative arrests.” According to Julie Myers, head of ICE, “ICE has no tolerance for corporate officers who harbor illegal aliens for their work force.”OK. I can hear you saying, “I don’t hire illegal aliens! So why should this matter to me or my company?” While it is obvious that hiring employees who are […]
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