Healthcare has evolved over the years. Now it’s a controlled industry, making sure that there are various rules in place so that there is no fraud with the clients. One such set of important rules is the HIPAA(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

HIPAA was enforced in 1996 to ensure that the patients are charged reasonably and that there is no fraud with them.

This law has ensured a standardized procedure for electronic billing and the safeguarding of private information regarding patients.

HIPAA requires employees to train a lot as included in their job description. This kind of training is important because if it is not followed, it can lead to paying huge fines by the hospitals. And hospitals can use LMS to train their employees so that they are aware of all the HIPAA regulations.

The hospitals can ensure that all their employees have made themselves aware of the HIPAA rules through an LMS.
Through an LMS, hospitals can train their workers without going through printed training materials for them. It’s also easy to monitor whether a worker has completed the course, eliminating the hassles for hospitals. Mobile LMS can offer so many benefits to hospitals. It can be accessed from anywhere. And such access is better because the hospitals now realize the benefit of remote access rather than teaching hospital workers in a classroom setting. LMS can be installed on the cloud for hospital employees. So, it is accessible through a website and even mobiles. The LMS can also be included in the HIPAA compliance software so that it’s easy to upload new information through the software itself on the LMS.

What is HIPAA?

HIPAA protects the patients against disclosure of information by the hospital employees in all its forms, be it soft copies, hard copies or even oral communication. All the information concerning an individual, which can be used to recognize him/her, can’t be revealed. It is known as Protected Health Information(PHI). Under this, if any kind of sensitive patient information is disclosed, it can lead to the imposition of severe penalties for those who have violated the rules. Under this law, the individuals can know whether their information has been released and to whom. They can also restrict certain leakages of their information.

But suppose the disclosure of such information is necessary to the public health authorities to stop the spread of disease. In that case, it can be done without taking authorization from the concerned individuals.

Under the HIPAA set of rules, three kinds of entities are covered for disclosure of information

• Health plans
• Health care clearinghouse that deals with the patient claims before the insurance providers handle them. So, they make sure that such claims made by patients are correct and whether they can be accepted or denied before they are sent to the insurance company.
• Health care providers

All the hospitals have to prove that their employees are aware of the HIPAA rules when after completing such a course, the proper certification has been issued to them.

Implementing a HIPAA based LMS can ensure that the hospital is providing training programs to employees as per industry standards. So, such an LMS, apart from providing training, ensures that the patient data is encrypted and can’t be hacked through the hospital server.