What Is HIPAA?
HIPAA vs HIPPA, are they the same thing? HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. President Bill Clinton signed the act into lat on August 21, 1996. HIPAA compliance outlines physical, administrative, and technical safeguards in the HIPAA checklist and HIPAA rules.
To be HIPAA compliant, a business must adhere to all of the mandatory items.
HIPAA vs HIPPA Differences
HIPAA is often mispelled as HIPPA, most likely because if you say the word out loud, it probably makes more sense to spell it HIPPA. However, that is incorrect, and it is important to spell HIPAA correctly. But how can you always remember to spell it correctly when it’s easily mispelled when moving quickly?
What Is HIPPA Compliance?
There is no such thing as HIPPA compliance. HIPAA compliance is the correct term and if someone were to type HIPPA compliance into a search engine like Google, the results would redirect to HIPAA results.
As you can see, Google automatically shows results for “HIPAA compliance” as “HIPPA compliance” doesn’t refer to the legitimate healthcare compliance. Even if you insist on Google showing results for “HIPPA compliance” you will see other articles much like this discussing the differences between HIPAA vs HIPPA.
The HIPAA Statute
HIPAA (not HIPPA) is made up of five titles. The US law protects individuals’ healthcare through a set of security and privacy rules with regard to electronic records.
Here are the five titles of HIPAA, summarized:
- Title I: The first title of the act made it easier to move and retain health insurance by making amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (IRC). This applies to individual and group markets. Title I put limits on the amount of time a group health plan could exclude an individual’s preexisting condition for coverage. It meant individuals could reduce the time period by applying “credible coverage” to their new plan. It prohibited the restriction of benefits for specific diseases or treatments, or from setting lifetime coverage limits.
- Title II: The second title amended the Social Security Act and the federal criminal code. There are seven subtitles that make up title II in order to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in healthcare systems by making administration simpler.
- Title III: This amended the IRC so that medical insurance could be entitled to certain tax deductions, limits for healthcare expenses out of pre-tax health savings accounts, and rules on long-term care as a medical service.
- Title IV: The IRC and PHSA were amended so that regulations created by Title I could be enforced regarding retaining insurance and treatment of preexisting conditions.
- Title V: Title V repealed the IRC’s financial institution rule to interest allocation rules. Tax deductions related to life insurance owned by a company were adjusted.
HIPAA Compliance Checklist
How To Remember The Correct Spelling Of HIPAA
As we’ve discussed, it’s important to remember the correct spelling of HIPAA (not HIPPA). If you can remember the name of the bill: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, then it will make it easier to remember the correct acronym.
Another way you could remember HIPAA is to think of it as not an animal known as a hippo. If you start writing or typing HIPPA just think about hippos and remember to change it to HIPAA. If you do forget, then you can always refer back to this article which should drum it in that HIPAA is the correct terminology.
HIPAA Hosting: How Do You Find A HIPAA Compliant Web Host?
Once you’ve nailed how HIPAA is spelled correctly (not HIPPA) then you can move onto ensuring that you choose a HIPAA compliant web host to ensure you meet the standards outlined in HIPAA.
We have a large list of HIPAA compliant recommended web hosts which are fully backed and audited by HIPAA so you can feel sure your business is HIPAA compliant.