When HIPAA was brought to the medical industry it was a welcomed and needed addition to the already policy heavy industry. Because of how much was involved with it and how many changes would take place as a result of it HIPAA consulting agencies were needed to help medical offices and hospitals get up to speed.
Anytime a big change comes down the pipeline there will be growing pains. This is true for any industry and it was also true for the medical industry as well. The changes that took place were big. One of the reasons it was so difficult for the medical industry to catch on to what HIPAA was and required was because many doctors do not know the first thing about insurance, how it works, or any of the other paperwork involved in their office.
Doctors might be great with patients and their need for help, but when it comes to paperwork and documents and things of that nature you can forget it, they get lost very quickly. It is mainly because their entire career they have nurses and receptionists and aids taking care of every little bit of that paperwork.
This was a change that needed to be implemented right away and the government was taking infractions very seriously. This entire act basically centered around patient privacy. Keeping their conditions private, their records, and anything else concerning everything they are doing at the hospital or doctor's office.
Consultants were called in all over the country to assist various offices and doctors all over. In some cases they needed to revamp the entire operation just to make sure it would be compliant. Fines were being levied against offices that did not comply and they were not cheap either. It was in every bodies best interests to get everything up to speed.
It was not just the doctors and the staff that needed to know what this all meant but the patients too. In addition to signing this and that and being given this and that, patients were now being given HIPAA paperwork explaining what it was and what their rights were. They also had to sign something saying they received that in particular.
When a doctor needed x-ray films or records from a patients last visit to their office, they needed to get the patient to sign permission for them to do so. As a proactive measure most doctors now have a form that their new patients sign that gives them rights in advance to procure forms from other offices if the need should arise.
People thought this would be just another form to hand out and boy were they mistaken. HIPAA consulting might have saved the medical industry from taking five large steps in the wrong direction. As difficult as it all may have been we as patients are all better for it. We no longer will have issues with the wrong people getting our records. IT is even difficult for us to get our own sometimes, but that is a good thing because it is that hard or harder for everyone else.
Anytime a big change comes down the pipeline there will be growing pains. This is true for any industry and it was also true for the medical industry as well. The changes that took place were big. One of the reasons it was so difficult for the medical industry to catch on to what HIPAA was and required was because many doctors do not know the first thing about insurance, how it works, or any of the other paperwork involved in their office.
Doctors might be great with patients and their need for help, but when it comes to paperwork and documents and things of that nature you can forget it, they get lost very quickly. It is mainly because their entire career they have nurses and receptionists and aids taking care of every little bit of that paperwork.
This was a change that needed to be implemented right away and the government was taking infractions very seriously. This entire act basically centered around patient privacy. Keeping their conditions private, their records, and anything else concerning everything they are doing at the hospital or doctor's office.
Consultants were called in all over the country to assist various offices and doctors all over. In some cases they needed to revamp the entire operation just to make sure it would be compliant. Fines were being levied against offices that did not comply and they were not cheap either. It was in every bodies best interests to get everything up to speed.
It was not just the doctors and the staff that needed to know what this all meant but the patients too. In addition to signing this and that and being given this and that, patients were now being given HIPAA paperwork explaining what it was and what their rights were. They also had to sign something saying they received that in particular.
When a doctor needed x-ray films or records from a patients last visit to their office, they needed to get the patient to sign permission for them to do so. As a proactive measure most doctors now have a form that their new patients sign that gives them rights in advance to procure forms from other offices if the need should arise.
People thought this would be just another form to hand out and boy were they mistaken. HIPAA consulting might have saved the medical industry from taking five large steps in the wrong direction. As difficult as it all may have been we as patients are all better for it. We no longer will have issues with the wrong people getting our records. IT is even difficult for us to get our own sometimes, but that is a good thing because it is that hard or harder for everyone else.
About the Author:
You can visit the website Hughesvpo.com for more helpful information about How HIPAA Consulting Saved The Medical Industry
No comments:
Post a Comment