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HEALTH INSURANCE PRIVACY
AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (“HIPAA”) PRIVACY REGULATIONS
This statement addresses the compliance obligations of the Mount
Holyoke College Group Health Insurance Plan (“Plan”)
under the Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act of 1996
(“HIPAA”) Privacy Regulations. The Privacy Regulations
address the responsibilities of health plans with respect to protecting
the privacy of their participants’ health information. Those
of us involved in the administration of the Plan for Mount Holyoke
College employees understand and respect the importance of maintaining
the privacy of your health information. Therefore, we have taken
steps to ensure that we are in compliance with the requirements
of the Privacy Regulations prior to the April 14, 2004 compliance
date.
The Plan is a fully-insured group health plan. That means that
the Plan offers health benefits to Mount Holyoke College employees
solely through insurance contracts with health insurance issuers
or HMOs, PPOs or POSs. As such, the Plan receives very little health
information about its plan participants. In fact, the Plan, and
Mount Holyoke College as plan sponsor, maintains only enrollment
and disenrollment information, and uses summary information relating
to claims of all Plan participants as a group, exclusive of names
and social security numbers, when seeking bids for new or renewals
of insurer contracts. We have communicated with our insurers to
indicate that we do not wish to receive any more than this minimal
information about our participants.
In accordance with the HIPAA Privacy Regulations, 42 CFR §§ 164.504(f),
164.520(a), 164.530(k), fully insured group health plans such as
ours, which have access to minimal health information, have limited
obligations under the Privacy Regulations. For example, we are
not required to develop or disseminate a Notice of Privacy Practices
(but you should have received one from your HMO), nor are we required
to develop policies and procedures or to provide staff training.
The risk of misuse and improper disclosure of health information
is minimized when a group health plan receives and maintains only
limited health information.
Our obligations under the Privacy Regulations are summarized below:
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The Plan (or a health insurance issuer or
HMO with respect to the Plan) may disclose to Mount Holyoke
College,
as the employer, summary health information, meaning information
summarizing claims history, claims expenses, and types of
claims of our participants but from which most identifying
information
has been deleted, but only if Mount Holyoke College requests
the summary health information for the purpose of:
- obtaining premium
bids from health plans for providing health insurance coverage
under the Plan; or
- modifying, amending or terminating the Plan.
The Plan (or a health insurance issuer or HMO with respect
to the Plan) may disclose to Mount Holyoke College information
on whether any individual employee of Mount Holyoke College
or his or her dependents or spouse are participating in the
Plan or is enrolled in or has disenrolled from a health insurance
issuer or HMO offered by the Plan.
The Plan must refrain from intimidating or retaliatory acts
if a participant wishes to assert his or her rights or to file
a complaint with the Secretary of Health and Human Services
concerning the Plan.
The Plan may not require a participant to waive his
or her individual rights under HIPAA as a condition of treatment,
payment, or involvement or eligibility for benefits in the
Plan
The Plan must develop in writing an amendment to
its plan documents if it ever determines that it needs more
of its participants’ protected health information from
insurers, and if such information must be disclosed to Mount
Holyoke College, in no case can such information be disclosed
for employment-related actions and decisions. |
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In addition, the Human Resources Director has agreed to serve
as the Privacy Officer for the Plan, even though this is not required
under the Privacy Regulations for a fully insured group health
plan. In the event that you have any questions relating to the
privacy of your health information as it involves the Plan, or
Mount Holyoke College as plan sponsor, please feel free to contact
the Human Resources Director.
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