Basics of HIPAA and Patient Privacy

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a broad-based law that was designed in part to protect patients' confidential medical information.

As a salesperson, you need to be familiar with HIPAA. Why? First of all, your customers must follow this law. Secondly, the law could in some instances apply to suppliers as well. And thirdly, you need to understand and be sensitive to HIPAA’s overall goal of protecting patient privacy.

In this course, you will learn:

• What HIPAA is and why it is of concern to your customers
• What identifying patient information is included under the term “personal heath information”
• What actions are considered permissible under the HIPAA regulations
• What makes a distributor a “business associate”
• HIPAA violations and their penalties