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The Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) went into effect on July 1,
1997. It protects an insured person's insurability. Before this law,
if an insured person lost insurance coverage for some reason, losing a
job for example, he or she could be required to prove insurability
before obtaining new coverage. For most people this wasn't a problem;
however, for people with chronic health problems or whose health
deteriorated while they were covered, it was a serious problem. Such
people lived in constant fear of losing their jobs and thereby losing
their health insurance. Now, if a person has been insured for the
past 12 months, a new insurance company cannot refuse to cover the
person and cannot impose preexisting conditions or a waiting period
before providing coverage.
It became evident to
Congress that successful HIPAA implementation would require a major
upgrade to communications between health care providers, insurance
plans and employers. Many security, privacy and confidentiality
issues would also have to be addressed. So the law was written to
include those kinds of mandates, with significant penalties for
non-compliance.
To find our more about
HIPAA, please visit the links on the sides of this page for everything
you need to know.
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