What is HIPAA?
HIPAA is an acronym standing for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The main purpose of this federal statute was to help consumers maintain their insurance coverage, but it also includes a separate set of provisions called Administrative Simplification. This section of the act is aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system. The key components of Administrative Simplification include:
- Standardized electronic transmission of common administrative and financial transactions (such as billing and payments)
- Unique health identifiers for individuals, employers, health plans, and health care providers
- Privacy and security standards to protect the confidentiality and integrity of individually identifiable health information
The Privacy Rule identifies as Protected Health Information (PHI) any individually identifiable health information held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. This HIPAA Privacy Rule took effect on April 14, 2003.
All medical records and other individually identifiable health information held or disclosed by a covered entity in any form, whether communicated electronically, on paper, or orally, are covered by the final regulation.
XeBee Records HIPAA Compliance
The security and privacy of all records collected and stored by XeBee are our top priorities. To this end, we have partnered with Microsoft Azure and Box.com to provide a HIPAA-compliant repository for all sensitive patient information. This way, we are able to ensure that every document ordered, retrieved, stored, and delivered, is protected. All transmissions use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) for encryption of data. All information collected is made available to authorized customers and their employees, and to authorized XeBee Records employees on an as-needed basis. No personally identifiable protected health information is used for sales, marketing, or non-business related activities. For more details, please visit our Online Services page.
Electronic Records
XeBee Records is involved in the business of protected health information (PHI). We are committed to providing a secure environment where your client’s personal information cannot be compromised. We have partnered with Microsoft Azure to bring our customers a secure cloud-based records repository.
Azure gives us the ability to electronically store medical records in a secure environment, while giving you the convenience of accessing your client’s medical records 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Upon becoming a customer of XeBee, we will walk you through the many features of using our web application to request and access your client’s medical and other records.