At Dentcon, your compliance with HIPAA regulations is one of our top priorities. We make sure that your technology is up-to-date and your patients’ information is well-protected. If you are a health care provider, you maintain, process, or have access to Patient Healthcare Information, you are considered a ‘covered entity’ and you must comply with some or all of the following:

The Privacy rule requires covered entities to implement formal policies, procedures and best practices regarding who has the right to access patient identifiable health information. The rule covers all individually identifiable health information in the past, present and future, regardless of the form – including oral, written and electronic. The Privacy portion of HIPAA includes numerous requirements which protect the patients’ rights, including:

The Privacy regulations have been finalized and are due by all covered entities April 14, 2003 with the following except for Small Health Plans (A Group or individual Health plan with less than 50 participants) have until April 14, 2004.

Many healthcare providers and health plans already use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) when exchanging data with their business partners. The DHHS estimates there are over 400 formats currently being used, making standardization almost impossible. In order to perform EDI efficiently, HIPAA requires a common format and data structure be used when exchanging specific transaction types, code sets and Identifiers electronically.

Health plans are required to have the capability to send and receive all HIPAA transactions now or by Oct. 16, 2003 if you filed for an extension.
Medicare will not accept paper claims after Oct. 16, 2003. However, if you have less than 10 employees, you are allowed an exception.
Other payers will follow suit and require electronic transmission in the near future.

The Security rule requires covered entities that maintain or transmit Patient Identifiable Data to develop and implement formal policies, procedures and best practices that will safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of its electronic data. The Security Standards include numerous requirements under the following four categories:

The Data Security standards, requirements, and implementation specifications apply to the following entities:

When a health care clearinghouse creates or receives protected health information as a business associate of another covered entity, or other than as a business associate of a covered entity, the clearinghouse must comply with the organizational requirements for covered entities, including the designation of health care components of a covered entity.

• Electronic claims filing made easy (Jan. 26, 2005)
• ADA HIPAA Security Kit answers your compliance questions (Aug. 2, 2004)
• ADA to release HIPAA Security Kit this summer (May 25, 2004)
• HIPAA privacy rule still focus of marketing tactics (May 7, 2004)
• Everything about the HIPAA rule coming in new ADA kit (March 8, 2004)
• Feds set sights on national identifier system for health care providers (Feb. 16, 2004)
• ADA acts on HIPAA hot spots (Nov. 18, 2003)
• HIPAA workshop dispels myths and misunderstandings (Oct. 29, 2003)
• HIPAA security required April 2005 (Oct. 8, 2003)
• HIPAA update: CMS allows extra time for testing (Sept. 25, 2003)
• HIPAA: Oct. 16 is electronic transactions deadline (Sept. 12, 2003)
• HIPAA electronic transactions deadline coming (Aug. 26, 2003)
• Test your knowledge of HIPAA and earn CE credits (July 3, 2003)
• ADA offers business associate agreement analysis for ADABEI-endorsed companies (June 30, 2003)
• Chat with ADA HIPAA experts June 26 (June 17, 2003)
• Inform patients with new HIPAA posters, brochure (May 19, 2003)
• HIPAA privacy questions (May 16, 2003)
• Business associate defined (May 13, 2003)
• New ADA service advises on HIPAA rule (May 13, 2003)
• No secrets about HIPAA privacy rule enforcement (April 22, 2003)
• April 14 is the HIPAA Privacy Rule deadline (April 14, 2003)