HIPAA simplification provision aims to reduce 'paper chase'

Abstract

HIPAA is going to change the way you use your computer in the office. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was passed in order to allow U.S. citizens to retain their health insurance even if they changed or lost their jobs. This sounds simple enough — and quite irrelevant to your office computer — but federal laws have a way of becoming quite complicated, and HIPAA has evolved into a law that promises to change some of the fundamental business processes in medicine. Ironically, the part of HIPAA that hits your computer system the hardest is called Administrative Simplification.