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Article: Do you know your business associates? As the April 14 privacy standards compliance deadline approaches, covered entities should make sure their business associate contracts reflect HIPAA's requirements.
- Article from:
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Healthcare Financial Management Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A bank processes credit-card transactions for your hospital, giving the bank access to certain protected health information (PHI). A hospital hires a consulting firm to review its billing practices. A health plan provides a list of its members to a pharmaceutical company to market a drug. Do any of these situations constitute a business associate relationship as defined by HIPAA? You will need to know before April 14.
Although the ambiguous language and breadth of the requirements in the HIPAA privacy standards leave room for error, HIPAA compliance is attainable. In terms of business associate contracts, HIPAA requires that covered entities identify and enter ...