subject: What Is Hipaa, And Does It Affect Me? [print this page] HIPAA is a grouping of laws which are designed to help protect the basic confidentiality of patient information when they are dealing with a health care facility. When a patient is being treated, they have the right to the total protection of their private information. This is why any medical office of any kind in the New Jersey area, is going to need the services of a New Jersey Shredding service.
HIPAA stands for the health insurance portability and accountability act. This law isn't so much a direct law which states what kind of shredding procedures a health care facility must use. Instead, it says that a health care facility must have their own strict shredding policy in writing, and that they must adhere to it at all time. Therefore, these types of companies use a professional shredding service to adhere to their own policies.
It is fairly comprehensive the types of patient information which are covered under this act. Anything which contains any information based on testing or procedures done in the hospital certainly falls under its jurisdiction. So does anything which contains any type of billing, banking or insurance information. There is a good chance that if a form out of a health care facility has a patient's name on it, it is subject to HIPAA.
The phrase "health care" is fairly broad, and in this case there are a wide variety of business types which are subject to the laws of HIPAA, and require a shredding company to help them adhere. These include everything from hospitals, medical offices, dentists, massage therapists, chiropractors and more. All of these types of offices must take whatever steps are necessary to preserve the privacy of their patient's information.
Professional shredding companies are used in these situations for a number of different reasons. First, the small paper shredders that people can buy for personal use in no way do a thorough job of destroying paper. For that, an industrial shredder like those used by professionals is required. Second, they are also a cost saving measure. They can destroy many times the volume of paper in a similar time period than people using smaller shredders. Finally, they ensure total confidentiality. The do this by both signing confidentiality agreements and by making arrangements to not just shred the papers but also to destroy the paper remains when finished, ensuring that no one can reconstruct the shredded documents to ferret out any secrets.
