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Healthcare Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Essay

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In 1996 the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act known as HIPAA was signed into law to improve the healthcare system. Now, HIPAA is a wide known law followed by every health plans, healthcare providers, healthcare clearinghouses, and other covered entities. The HIPAA law has many purposes which were enacted in stages. This law provides the ability to continue health insurance for American employees when they change or lose their jobs. This law also mandated a healthcare industry wide standard for health care information on electronic billing. HIPAA is also known for the protection and confidential handling standards of protected health information. The HIPAA law has two main portions: portability and accountability. The portability section of this law enables workers to continue health insurance when they are changing or have lost their job. Part of the portability provision is having a Certificate of Creditable Coverage which indicates the dates the regular coverage has been lost and COBRA coverage has begun. There is also a special enrollment period for employees and their dependents under certain circumstances. Some of the circumstances include the employee losing their previous coverage, the COBRA coverage period has been exhausted, or the employee gaining a spouse or another dependent by marriage, adoption, or birth. The portability portion of HIPAA allows healthcare insurance to stay with or change as the employee’s status changes in life.

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