subject: Be Well : versed with Hipaa Guidelines [print this page] Be Well : versed with Hipaa Guidelines Be Well : versed with Hipaa Guidelines
A certified medical coder must have a thorough understanding of a federal law called Health Information Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA), apart from having coding certification and expertise in medical coding know-how. It is as important in your medical coding career as the codes that you use to diagnose services and procedures.
The HIPAA act safeguards the patients' rights and maintains their healthcare records safely and with security. In the last few decades there has been an explosion in the complexity of medical care and in keeping the medical records and information requirement of medical coding. This act covers any type of medical information that a doctor, physicist, nurse or therapist places in a patient's record file.
To be in compliance with HIPAA, you'll be required to know the unique identification codes for the medical procedures, electronic signature rules, the tech safeguards for privacy, and the like. If you fail to follow HIPAA rules, it can adversely affect your medical career and may also lead to sanctions against the doctor/physician or clinic you work for.
Whether you work in a physician's office or a clinic, your employer must provide you with the written privacy procedures. It must provide you with the information you'll have access to, use of that information by you and in which instances you can disclose that information. It is mandatory that every certified medical coder should be well aware of HIPAA guidelines.
But if you want to be a certified medical coder, you need to pass tough certification exams. And to pass your exam, it's suggested that you go for a training camp.
