THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY November 12, 2002 HIPAA ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: VeriSign - The Value of Trust
Secure all your Web servers now - with a proven 5-part strategy. The FREE Server Security Guide shows you how to: - DEPLOY THE LATEST ENCRYPTION and authentication techniques - DELIVER TRANSPARENT PROTECTION with the strongest security without disrupting users. And more. Get your FREE Guide now: http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,7381,00.htm?freeguide ______________ TODAY'S WORD: HIPAA See our definition with hyperlinks at http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci862786,00.html HIPAA is the United States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. There are two sections to the Act. HIPAA Title I deals with protecting health insurance coverage for people who lose or change jobs. HIPAA Title II includes an administrative simplification section which deals with the standardization of healthcare-related information systems. In the information technology industries, this section is what most people mean when they refer to HIPAA. HIPAA establishes mandatory regulations that require extensive changes to the way that health providers conduct business. HIPAA seeks to establish standardized mechanisms for electronic data interchange (EDI), security, and confidentiality of all healthcare-related data. The Act mandates: standardized formats for all patient health, administrative, and financial data; unique identifiers (ID numbers) for each healthcare entity, including individuals, employers, health plans and health care providers; and security mechanisms to ensure confidentiality and data integrity for any information that identifies an individual. Because of the current lack of standardization within the healthcare field and the comprehensive nature of HIPAA's regulations, many organizations have a great deal of work ahead of them in order to comply with the Act's components. In general, the deadline for compliance is 24 months after the effective date of any given rule. The transaction rule, which mandates standards for transactions and code sets, was published on August 17, 2000; its compliance deadline was October 16, 2002. The compliance deadline for the privacy rule is April 14, 2003. Compliance for the third segment, which deals with security, is likely to be set for late 2004. RELATED TERMS: EDI http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci213925,00.html ______________________ SELECTED LINKS SearchSecurity.com offers an "HIPAA Update" group of stories. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/featuredTopic/0,290042,sid14_gci799625,00.html Phoenix Health Systems provides an "HIPAA Primer." http://www.hipaadvisory.com/regs/HIPAAprimer1.htm The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has more information about "HIPAA Administrative Simplification." http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa2/default.asp ______________________ QUIZ #32 | Logic Chips How much do you know about the little machine inside your computer that carries out the orders of whatever program happens to be in charge? We're betting you know quite a bit - no pun intended! >> Take the quiz http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci861268,00.html ______________________ CROSSWORD PUZZLE #6 | Wireless Improve your flexible thinking skills. Print out the puzzle and keep it nearby to work on throughout your day! http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci861329,00.html ______________________ REAL-LIFE CHALLENGE #19 | Internet banking while at work Rob's fellow employees want to know if it's safe to do their Internet banking over the company LAN. Can you advise them? http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?msgInContext@;233.yYyLaVl9sHU.5@.1dcfae0e/154 ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] nagware http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci860960,00.html [2] Daylight Saving Time http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci860747,00.html [3] X dimension http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci860044,00.html [4] DOT4 http://searchhp.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid6_gci860597,00.html [5] Stefan-Boltzmann constant http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci861008,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Associate Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Published by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. 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