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Home >
Computer
/ Privacy Filters >
About HIPAA Compliance
About HIPAA
compliance and the Advantages of using a Computer Privacy
Filter
- Protecting
individual privacy makes good sense, as well as being
mandatory in many settings |
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HIPAA
provisions mandated new and stringent
standards for patient privacy protection,
requiring medical, insurance, and
other healthcare businesses and
practitioners to protect the privacy
and security of that medical
information both in electronic and
printed formats.
Privacy
filters limit the reading radius
of your screen to front view. That
means that people who may be looking
at your screen from the sides cannot
read your screen texts. Many businesses
and organizations require view security
on computer screens in order to
safeguard important company documents;
others are required to reduce access
to personal information of patients,
and customers.
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One
example of how a privacy
filter
limits
screen view
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The
patient privacy rules set standards
to protect the privacy of patient
personal health and billing information.
The
provisions of the law mandated stringent
standards for patient privacy protection,
requiring businesses and practitioners
to protect the privacy and security
of medical information both in electronic
and printed formats. Full HIPAA
compliance has been required by
federal law since April 14, 2003.
The rule is enforced by the HHS
Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and
OCR was named responsible for providing
assistance to health care providers,
hospitals, insurance agencies, doctor
offices and health clearinghouses
in meeting the regulation's requirements.
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Information physicians, nurses,
and other health care providers
place in a patient's medical
records.
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Conversations about patient
treatment plans and care which
doctors have with other healthcare
providers, such as nurses and
other physicians.
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Patient billing information.
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Any information about the patient
that is in the health insurer's
computer system.
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Other health information about
the patient that's held by those
people and institutions affected
by this law.
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As a
result of the passage of this regulation,
healthcare, medical, and insurance
offices began instituting new procedures
and training safeguards in their
offices.
An important
aspect of the protection of patient
information was securing their private
medical and billing records from
anyone, including their own internal
personnel who did not require access
to the information to fulfill their
job function. The HIPAA privacy
regulations required affected organizations
to:
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"...develop
and implement policies and procedures
that restrict access and uses
of protected health information..."
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Certain safeguards were also
to be implemented, including
examples, such as, "...shredding
documents..., securing medical
records with lock and key or
pass code, and limiting access
to keys or pass codes."
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The
HIPAA regulations did not detail
specific products and items every
office was required to use. Certain
items were obvious choices for business
owners, HR managers, academic
testing facilities, physicians,
and other professionals. A computer
privacy filter or computer monitor
hoods make good business sense in
today's open office environments;
and, because some models of anti
glare filters also provided privacy
viewing limits, purchasing those
particular type of screens offered
an additional workstation benefit
for employees, such as less eye
fatigue. Probably the most
effective and popular technology
for creating LCD privacy
computer filters is Micro Louver
Technology. To read more about
the importance of laptop and LCD
screen privacy, go to
About Laptop Privacy Screen.
Other
items quickly became part of organizations
under HIPAA standards, but have
become favored throughout the business
world. Locking file cabinets helped
safeguard patient files when not
in use, yet locking important business
documents behind secure doors can
also protect them from other dangers.
Right down to details, items such
as wall mounting chart holders were
redesigned; now there are high-sided
models where pending patient file
folders can be kept without exposing
the patient names to view by casual
observers. These medical-style chart
holders have been quickly adopted
by other organizations, such as
company Human Resource Departments.
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PDF Files
(Acrobat
Reader):
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To read a more detailed
OCR Summary of HIPAA Privacy
Rule
in PDF format,
click here.
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