Are you a Healthcare provider looking to outsource your HIPAA compliant letter mail?
Reduce your costs and increase the speed of delivery by outsourcing your HIPAA compliant Member and Provider mailings to Kaleidoscope Services. We are a full service mailhouse providing HIPAA compliant print and letter mailing services to healthcare providers, hospitals, medical practices, and government agencies nationwide. Kaleidoscope and its entire staff are in full compliance with all Federal HIPAA Privacy Regulations. Our quality assurance process ensures that electronic and printed data remains secure throughout all print and mail operations.

What is HIPAA?
In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or the HIPAA was endorsed by the U.S. Congress. The HIPAA Privacy Rule, also called the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, provided the first nationally-recognizable regulations for the use/disclosure of an individual's health information. Essentially, the Privacy Rule defines how covered entities use individually-identifiable health information or the PHI (Personal Health Information). 'Covered entities' is a term often used in HIPAA-compliant guidelines. This definition of a covered entity is specified by [45 CFR § 160.102] of the Privacy Rule. Some examples of covered entities are below:

• Health plan
• Healthcare clearinghouse
• Healthcare provider
• Business Associates of Healthcare providers

Overview of the Privacy Rule

• Gives patients control over the use of their health information
• Defines boundaries for the use/disclosure of health records by covered entities
• Establishes national-level standards that healthcare providers must comply with
• Helps to limit the use of PHI and minimizes chances of its inappropriate disclosure
• Strictly investigates compliance-related issues and holds violators accountable with civil or criminal penalties for violating the privacy of an individual's PHI
• Supports the cause of disclosing PHI without individual consent for individual healthcare needs, public benefit and national interests

HIPAA realizes that there is a critical need to balance the steps taken for the protection of an individual's health information along with provision of proper healthcare faculties. The Privacy Rule strives hard to regulate the sharing of PHI without making it a deterrent for accessing healthcare facilities. Thus, the Privacy Rule does permit disclosures, under special circumstances, wherein individual authorization is not needed by public healthcare authorities.

However, this is a very basic definition, as the realm of a Covered Entity implies to all Business Associates that are involved in accessing/sharing an individual’s medical health information. A Business Associate represents all persons or organizations that are involved in the direct functioning of a Covered Entity or act on behalf on a Covered Entity. However, it does not involve the employees of a covered entity. For example, the clerical staff at a healthcare center is not regarded as a Business Associate’. However, an outsourcing firm that is handling medical billing on behalf of the medical facility is a Business Associate, i.e. it is bound to follow HIPAA compliance guidelines. Usual services rendered by a Business Associate include:

• Handling Patient's personal/medical data
• Assistance in Administrative functions
• Legal/financial/insurance-based Consultations
• Mailing correspondence to patients