Information privacy as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1966 (HIPAA): Awareness and barriers to compliance as experienced by small health care practitioners in rural West Virginia.

摘要

hysicians have sworn to uphold patient trust and privacy since the time of Hypocrites. Given today's technological innovations and electronic access to medical information, an oath to uphold privacy is not enough. Unlike credit reports, educational records, and video rentals, there have been no U.S. federal privacy laws providing individuals the right to know how their medical records are used and disclosed. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) mandated standards for the transmission of electronic health information and protection of that information by practitioners, health plans, clearinghouses, and pharmaceutical drug card sponsors who electronically process medical transactions. An estimated 400,000 small practitioners were required to comply with HIPAA. Small health care providers in rural West Virginia faced additional challenges. West Virginia is the second most rural state in the nation; has the oldest median age; is the only state to experience a natural decrease in population; ranks first in the percentage of residents on Medicare; placed lowest in median household income; and in 1998, 50 of West Virginia's 55 counties were designated as Medically Underserved Areas.;The goals of this study were to promote HIPAA awareness, ascertain levels of HIPAA awareness, and identify barriers or issues that may have hindered those who perceive themselves as HIPAA privacy compliant. The descriptive research methodology was utilized to achieve these goals. Surveys were distributed to 408 licensed physicians in rural West Virginia. This study assessed if participants qualified as small, i.e., annual revenues of