LII:HIPAA Compliance - LII 007 00. Course Introduction

Reason for the course

In the U.S. healthcare industry there are two main regulatory laws: CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988) and HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). The first is aimed at clinical laboratories and the second applies to the vast majority of healthcare settings (the exact specifications are described in Lesson 2, LII:HIPAA Compliance - LII 007 02. Who Needs to Comply?). This course is aimed at providing those required to comply with HIPAA some accurate and useful training. Indeed, HIPAA training is mandated in the law itself. This from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):

Workforce Training and Management. Workforce members include employees, volunteers, trainees, and may also include other persons whose conduct is under the direct control of the [covered] entity (whether or not they are paid by the entity).^[1] A covered entity must train all workforce members on its privacy policies and procedures, as necessary and appropriate for them to carry out their functions.^[2] A covered entity must have and apply appropriate sanctions against workforce members who violate its privacy policies and procedures or the Privacy Rule.

Scope

This course is based almost completely on first-hand materials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the actual Health Information and Portability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) law itself, rather than relying on tertiary interpretations and paraphrasing - although several other of these were taken into account to gather and present the fullest comprehension of the materials and their relevance for the Covered Entities it affects.