Posted by noa on April 16, 2003, at 20:59:18
In reply to Re: New Privacy Rules and getting scrips at pharmacy » noa, posted by Elizabeth on April 16, 2003, at 15:20:19
Hi, Elizabeth!
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The first part of it was already implemented--the part that makes it easier to keep coverage when you change jobs, including covering pre-existing conditions.
The second part is what the April 14th deadline was--creating standards for how records are kept, especially electronic records, but also setting standards for privacy of medical info.
This is where having a signed release for someone else to pick up your meds comes in.
I think in general, having more stringent privacy rules is good. I don't think the public was prepped enough, though. Especially for the drugstore issues.
Also, I don't know the details, but there are apparently some provisions in the HIPAA law that actually make it easier for medical info to be shared, or to be collected in aggregate, and privacy advocates did protest these. As I said, I don't know the details.
Interestingly, some states have stricter privacy rules than those in the HIPAA law, but the HIPAA law says that the higher standard prevails.
poster:noa
thread:219348
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030411/msgs/219906.html