Insurance plays an essential part of many people's lives. It provides protection from unexpected financial loss such as when a tree falls onto your house, protecting you against such disasters as an earthquake.
Insurance Essentials covers everything you need to know about general insurance and should bring peace of mind.
Health Information Privacy and Security
Health data privacy and security is an issue that both physicians and other clinicians, as well as their patients, face. With the digital health ecosystem expanding exponentially, effective stewardship of personal information requires new rules in order to keep it protected.
Clinicians and other healthcare providers must abide by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a national framework to safeguard individual privacy by restricting how information can be used or disclosed without patient authorization. Additionally, this rule contains a breach notification requirement which mandates covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) notify individuals, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as possibly media outlets, of any breaches in unsecured health information that compromise their systems.
However, this does not cover the expanding ecosystem of noncovered entities collecting health information for use in mobile health apps, wearable devices and social media platforms. Therefore, comprehensive federal legislation and regulation are needed to address gaps in health information privacy and security protections as well as ensure safe information flow inside and outside of healthcare systems.
HIPAA
Before HIPAA came into force, most individual and group health plans were subject to various state and federal laws regulating them. HIPAA established standards for the transfer of personal health information (PHI), while also outlining individuals' right to access it from healthcare providers or plans.
It also provided guidelines for healthcare providers and businesses known as "covered entities" to use when handling personally identifiable medical information, including National Provider Identifier standards, transaction/code set standards and requirements for privacy notices and hearings regarding allegations of noncompliance.
HIPAA Security Rule sets standards to safeguard electronic Protected Health Information ("ePHI"). This data may be stored onsite, remotely, or in cloud environments and requires covered entities and their business associates to establish technical safeguards, such as encryption for transit or at rest data, as well as implement regular software patches and updates to secure systems against cyber threats.
NY State of Health’s Essential Plan
The Essential Plan provides New Yorkers who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford an Individual Qualified Health Plan (IQHP) with access to a Qualified Health Plan during open enrollment, but do not yet afford one of its four versions - each featuring different benefits, premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Emblemhealth is currently offering this plan in all 62 counties while CDPHP, Crystal Run and Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield HealthPlus have elected not to participate this year.
Fidelis Care's Essential Plan offers four income-based tiers with no monthly premium, featuring telemedicine services as well as dental and vision coverage. In order to be eligible, individuals must reside in New York state and be United States citizens or permanent residents without Medicare or Child Health Plus coverage enrolled; additionally they must earn between 138%-200% of Federal Poverty Level - please view Income Guidelines to check if you meet these criteria.
Renewals
Insurance policy renewal can be an intimidating and time-consuming task if not managed efficiently. To minimize any interruption in coverage and penalties, and gain valuable insights from this process. Renewing early will also give one time to compare it against competitors' offerings as well as explore portability options.
Individuals need to take several factors into account when selecting an insurance policy, including age, family medical history and lifestyle choices. All these aspects have an effect on premium amounts; younger and healthier people typically pay lower premiums.
As people get older, their risk of serious illness increases and healthcare-related expenses rise accordingly. Therefore, individuals should adapt their policy as necessary and renew promptly so as not to miss out on accumulated benefits such as waived waiting periods or preexisting diseases exclusion period waiver.
