School of Medicine

Welcome to the WSU-SOM HIPAA Project

Welcome to the Wayne State University School of Medicine HIPAA website. This site is designed to share information with you regarding the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. A variety of resources are provided within this website to help explain how the HIPAA regulations affect you as an individual or as a member of our healthcare team. Please contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Simplified, HIPAA was established to:

• Allow portability of pre-existing condition exemption between employer health insurance group plans
• Standardize electronic transactions in health care to reduce costs through adjustments in (record formats, code sets, identifiers, eligibility, referral, claims, remittance, etc.

• Privacy - standards defining appropriate and inappropriate disclosures of individually identifiable health information and how patient rights are to be protected (Final date of compliance 4/14/2003)
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - electronic transfer of information among organizations (Date of compliance 10/16/2003)
• Security - standards for protecting confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data (Date of compliance 04/25/2005)
• Code Sets - uniform codes for illnesses and treatments (No definite date of compliance)
• Identifiers - standardized numbers identifying health providers, plans, and employers (No definite date of compliance)

HIPAA Privacy Related Policies and Procedures