On August 21, 1996, the Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Public Law 104-191. HIPAA was designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system by facilitating electronic interchange of healthcare information, including financial and administrative transactions transmitted eletronicallly between healthcare organizations. Congress directed the Department of Health and Human Services to develop standards for transactions, unique health identifiers, transaction code sets, electronic signature, privacy, and secuirty.

The "Health Insurance Reform: Security Standards; Final Rule," commonly known as the HIPAA Security Rule, was issued by the Department of Health and Human Service on April 21, 2003. the HIPAA Security Rule was designed to assure patients, insured individuals, providers, and health plans that the security (i.e., integrity, confidentiality, and availability) of electronic protected health information (e-PHI) is protected through its collection, maintenance, use and transmission. The purpose of this rule was to adopt national security standards for the healthcare industry for safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information.

How WCS will help you?

WCS assists organizations to assess their compliance with HIPAA regulations. This service also assists organizations in the Healthcare industry to implement the administrative, physical and technical safeguards needed to satisfy this regulation.