The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) regulate and protect Personal Health Information, or PHI.

Here, we explain HIPAA and HITECH in detail, and help you understand how to maintain and properly destroy your documents to ensure that your company or medical practice complies with these critical laws.

Hipaa and medical waste

Does HIPAA Apply to Medical Waste?

by | Updated September 17, 2019 | HIPAA/HITECH | 4 min read
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is primarily designed to enforce security of patient information by setting standards for protecting health information and holding the healthcare industry accountable for security. Enacted in 1996, the Department of Health and Human Services states that according to HIPAA, covered entities...
Round Table Discussion

Shredding Laws and Regulations Round Table

by | Updated May 28, 2019 | HIPAA/HITECH | 5 min read
FACTA, HIPAA, SOX , and GLBA are regulations put into place to keep personal and private information secure, garnering penalties to institutions who do not take precautions in doing so. The Shredding Laws and Regulations Round Table goes in-depth at what each set of regulations entails and the best...
Doctor Files

HIPAA Shredding and Retention Requirements

by | Updated February 1, 2019 | HIPAA/HITECH | 4 min read
HIPAA: A Brief Background The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), first signed into law in 1996, was created to benefit employees in between jobs with the improvement of “portability and accountability of health insurance coverage.” Prior to this act, there was no clear enforcement or guidance for...

Is PII protected by HIPAA?

by | Updated December 4, 2015 | HIPAA/HITECH | 3 min read
Personal identifiable information is any information that can be used to identify, contact, or locate an individual, either alone or combined with other easily accessible sources to uniquely identify a person. Some PII is classified as sensitive and some information is not. PII is considered sensitive when it is...

Retention and Destruction of Health Information

by | May 14, 2015 | HIPAA/HITECH | 2 min read
With the changes in legislation for retaining and destroying of medical records, it’s become an important task to ensure that your practice has a plan in place, and that your employees understand what to do with and how to store this very private information. As the American Health Information...

HIPAA Shredding Requirements

by | Updated July 1, 2015 | HIPAA/HITECH | 3 min read
Personal Health Information (PHI) has been protected since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) became law in 1996. The security requirements are covered in the Privacy Rule that was finalized in 2000 then modified in 2002 and the Security Rule that was finalized in 2003. The requirements...

HIPAA Rules for Medical Records Shredding

by | Updated January 19, 2018 | HIPAA/HITECH | 2 min read
Disposing of your medical records is extremely important because you don’t want any of your information, or your patient’s information ending up in the wrong hands.  Really the only way that you can make sure that your records are destroyed properly is to use medical records shredding.  This will...