Part III – HIPAA Reference

Part III – HIPAA Reference • HIPAA – In General • Background • Why Employers Should Care ? • Overview of Requirements • EDI Transaction Standards • Security • Privacy • HIPAA Compliance Implementation

BackgroundIn General • Enacted in 1996, HIPAA was to incrementally address various issues within the health care industry • Major elements include: • Improved health coverage portability requirements • Prohibitions on discrimination based on health status • Increased fraud enforcement • Simplifying health care claim payment process to reduce administrative costs • Primarily by standardizing electronic data transactions, which raises security and privacy concerns

Background Statutory Structure HIPAA Title I Title II Title III Title IV Title V Guarantees health insurance portability and renewal Administrative simplification Tax provision for medical savings accounts Enforcement of group health plan provisions Revenue offset provisions

BackgroundWhy was HIPAA Needed? • Healthcare industry • Need for ease of data transfer • Move from paper to EDI (electronic data interchange) • Economic reasons • The “patient” as the “consumer’ • Increasing privacy and confidentiality concerns • Legislative issues • 50 different states, with different laws, lack of consistency with no minimum floor

Why Employers Should Care?In General • Although not a covered entity, any employer that provides group health benefits will be at least indirectly affected • Employers with self-funded plans will be considered “hybrid” entities and their health plan operations will be directly subject to the rules • Company access to employee health plan records for employment reasons (including administration of other benefit plans and laws) will be further limited • Federal preemption of state laws will be limited to establishing minimum floor protection • Certain customary practices may have to be changed

Federal Programs Exclusion from federalprograms anticipated Accreditation Accrediting organizations will require compliance in the future Wrongful Disclosure Each Offense (max.)$50,000 per offense1 year imprisonment False Pretenses$100,000 per offense5 years imprisonment Intent to Sell, Transfer or Use$250,000 per offense10 years imprisonment Why Employers Should Care? Penalties Civil Monetary Penalties $100 for each violation $25,000 maximum per year, per violation

Why Employers Should Care?Compliance Deadlines • HIPAA’s administrative simplification incorporates three major distinct but overlapping components, each with different compliance deadlines: • Electronic transaction standards • Generally 10/16/03 • Privacy • Generally 4/14/03 • Security • Generally 4/21/05 • For more information: http://aspe.hhs.gov/adminsimp.Index.htm http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa http://www.ibiweb.org/news/HIPAA

EDI Transaction StandardsIn General • HIPAA requires standardization of these electronic health care transactions: • Health claims or similar encounter information • Enrollment & disenrollment in a health plan • Eligibility for a health plan • Health care payment & remittance advice • Health plan premium payments • Health claim status • Referral certification & authorization • Health claims attachments (to be issued in the future) • First report of injury (to be issued in the future)

Providers Treatment EDI Transaction Points of Contact Patient/Consumer Sponsors Payers Need HC Insurance (Form) Enrollment (834) Non-HIPAA Transaction Payroll Deduction Invoice (811) Premium Pmt (820) Eligibility (270) Response (271) Referral (278) Response (278) Claim (837) Need more info (277) Claim Inquiry (276) Response (277) Payment & EOB (835) EOB (Paper)

EDI Transaction StandardsUnique Identifiers • Eventually HIPAA will require use of unique identifying numbers for employers and for covered entities (i.e., health plans, providers, and clearinghouses) • To date, only the employer identifier standards have been finalized (the employer’s federal tax identification number must be used) • The controversial use of an unique identifier for employees has been withdrawn

SecurityIn General • Intended to minimize risk of intentional or accidental disclosure or misuse, or the loss or corruption of patient-identifiable health information • Sets a floor of minimum administrative, physical, and computer security standards to protect medical data • Reflects commonly accepted security safeguards widely used across many industries • Security measures to be tailored to organization’s risk analyses, technical environment, and business needs

SecurityEmployer Implications • Typically, will require developing and/or modifying a number of IT/IS policies, procedures, and protocols with respect to individual health information that is generated, transmitted, or stored electronically • With respect to both the covered entity and its business associates • Thus, early involvement of IT/IS staff in an employer’s HIPAA compliance effort is critical • Not uncommon for employers to engage a specialized IT/IS consultant to help assess compliance gaps and implement corrective steps

PrivacyIn General • Rules apply to all individually patient-identifiable health information whether in paper or electronic form • Key terms • Protected Health Information (PHI) • Covered Entity • Business Associate

PrivacyProtected Health Information • PHI = individually identifiable health information + created or received by a covered entity • Individually identifiable health information • Any information that relates to an individual’s past, present, or future physical or mental condition, or the provision or payment of health care, and • That specifically identifies the individual (or there is a reasonable belief that the individual can be identified), AND WHICH IS • Created or received by a covered entity • Can be in any form (oral, written, or electronic) • Examples: claims data, and (depending on source) enrollment data, and employee contribution information

PrivacyDe-Identification Requirements • Covered entities are permitted to use PHI to create de-identified information for its own unlimited use or for unlimited use by another entity without authorization from individuals • De-identified information = health care information which does not identify the individual or that which the covered entity has no reasonable basis to believe can be used to identify the individual • While use of such generic information may be useful for certain types of broad based trend studies, it is probably not useful to achieve most other business objectives • Use of certain types of partially de-identified information (summary information or “limited data sets”) allowed for specific limited purposes • Enrollment/disenrollment data • Aggregate claims history / expenses / types of claims data for coverage renewals and plan design changes

PrivacyCovered Entity • All health care providers • All health care payers (including managed care organizations, carriers, and self-funded employers) • All health care clearinghouses that process claims, or route electronic claims • Certain health plans • Health insurers (including HMO’s), and • Group health plans with 50+ participants or administered by an entity other than the employer that established and maintains the plan

PrivacyCovered Entity (cont.) • Employers, as a whole, typically are not covered entities • Thus, most employers are not directly subject to HIPAA privacy regulations • However, certain components of an employer might constitute a covered entity (e.g., self-funded group health plan) • Hybrid employers will be subject to various requirements and obligations • “Firewalls” must be created between covered and non-covered functions • Plan cannot share PHI with non-health plan component of employer unless plan sponsor certifies plan has been amended to limit use and disclosure of PHI and that safeguards are in place • Exceptions for limited enrollment activities

PrivacyBusiness Associates • Business associate = any outside entity to which covered entities disclose PHI to perform necessary functions • E.g., third-party administrators, case managers, attorneys, collection agencies, claims auditors, consultants • Does not include plan sponsors, insurers, disclosures from a covered entity to a health care provider for treatment of an individual • Covered entities must have agreements in place to contractually bind BAs to limit use of PHI to designated purposes and to comply with covered entity-type of confidentiality rules

PrivacyBusiness Associates (cont.) • Covered entities have potential civil and criminal liability exposure for breaches by BAs • Thus, there is an obligation to monitor your BAs’ activities • Under final regulations, however, action needs to be taken only if there is actual knowledge of material violation • Compliance deadline • Generally, all BA agreements must be in place by 4/14/03 • However, any BA agreements in place prior to 10/15/02 will be deemed sufficient until 4/14/04 (unless the agreement terminates or is modified in any way prior to that date)

PrivacyBasic Requirements • Patients have the right to understand and control how their health information is being used • Providers and health plans to give individuals clear, written notice of how they use, keep, and disclose their health information • Individuals have right to access their medical records (to view, make copies, request amendments, and obtain accounting for non-routine disclosures) • Individual authorizations required before information is released in most non-routine situations • Covered entities accountable for use and release of information, with recourse available if privacy is violated

PrivacyBasic Requirements (cont.) • Use of individual health information generally limited to health purposes • PHI cannot be used for purposes other than treatment, payment, or health care operations without individual authorization • Individual authorizations must be informed and voluntary • Reasonable efforts must be undertaken to limit release of information to “minimum necessary amount” • Minimum necessary amount requirement applies to use of protected health information for payment or health plan operations, but not for treatment purposes

PrivacyBasic Requirements (cont.) • Minimum privacy safeguard standards established for covered entities (with similar requirement applicable to BAs by contract and plan sponsor by plan amendment) • Adoption of written privacy procedures, with safeguards and sanctions specified • Periodic distribution of privacy notice • Training of employees on handling PHI • Designation of a privacy officer (covered entities only) • Establishment of a grievance / complaint procedure • Recordkeeping with respect to PHI disclosures

HIPAA ImplementationBasic Phases • Phase I • Awareness / Education • Preliminary scope assessment • Budgeting • Task force team selection • Phase II • Detailed current PHI flow and use analysis • Detailed compliance gap analysis • Phase III • Implementation of prioritized action item list

Part III – HIPAA Reference