HIPAA Web Site
(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act )

• What is HIPAA?

• HIPAA Privacy Regulations
  (http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/)

• HIPAA Security Regulations

• The University of Alabama as a "Hybrid Entity"

• HIPAA and Research

• HIPAA Privacy and Security Training at The University of Alabama
  (PowerPoint Presentation)

• HIPAA Training modules from the University of Alabama- Birmingham (http://www.hipaa.hrm.uab.edu/hipaa/training.html)
  Currently unavailable

• Contact the University of Alabama's Privacy Officer
  Jan Chaisson (jchaisson@cchs.ua.edu)

What is HIPAA?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by Congress in 1996 to:

HIPAA applies to "Covered Entities," defined by the Privacy Rule as

Because the University of Alabama has at least one department that provides health care services and electronically transmits health information, it is considered a Covered Entity.

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UA as a "hybrid entity"

Since the primary function of The University is not to provide health care, UA is permitted to designate itself as a "hybrid entity," which allows it to apply the Privacy Rule only to those parts of UA that, if standing alone, would be a Covered Entity. As a hybrid entity, UA must designate its "health care components," which includes departments that provide support for health care components.

Health Care Components at the University of Alabama are:

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HIPAA and Research

A researcher who obtains protected health information from a Covered Entity (whether at UA or from some other Covered Entity), the research will need to comply to HIPAA research
guidelines, working through the Institutional Review Board.

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