123 HIPPA

Effects of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Introduction Just when Americans thought it was safe to turn on their computers after this year’s anticipated Y2K catastrophe, now comes the federal government’s new Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) -- privacy regulations that will create new, insurmountable challenges for today’s healthcare industry. The Y2K bug is estimated to have cost the health care industry upwards of $10 billion. By comparison, implementing the HIPAA privacy and security regulations is estimated to cost the health care industry $40 billion over the next two years. Beginning January 2001, US health care operations will never be the same again. This paper will address the origins of these new federal privacy regulations with a specific focus on the privacy standards and the Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed rules on confidentiality of personal health information. In a Wall Street Journal/ABC poll conducte...