HIPAA vs HIPPA: What Does is Stand For?

HIPAA vs HIPPA: What Does is Stand For?

Is it HIPAA or HIPPA? When referring to the healthcare compliance law, H-I-P-A-A is the correct way of spelling it. HIPPA is incorrect and you should make sure you are using the correct spelling of the word. But, regardless of which spelling you type into a search engine, you will be redirected to the correct HIPAA results.

What Does the Acronym "HIPAA" Stand For?

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. President Bill Clinton signed the act into law on August 21, 1996. HIPAA compliance outlines physical, administrative, and technical safeguards in the HIPAA checklist and HIPAA rules.

This US law protects individuals' medical records and other important health information supplied to doctors, health plans, hospitals, and other healthcare entities. To be HIPAA compliant, a business must adhere to all the mandatory items.

The act contains five sections, called titles:

Title I - This part of the act made it more possible to move and retain health insurance (whether individual or group) by making changes to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (IRC), Public Health Service Act (PHSA), and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This title contains language that outlaws discrimination in the form of benefit restriction related to certain treatments or illnesses, or the establishment of lifetime maximums unless these caps or levels were used for everyone within the same basic circumstances (rather than targeting people with specific health risks). The amount of time that a health plan or insurance carrier is able to exclude coverage of a preexisting condition is reduced within Title I; plus, it makes it possible to take "creditable coverage", coverage on a previous health plan, and use it to further lower the time prior to acceptance of those conditions. Finally, when anyone is dropped from insurance because of losing a job, or in the event of death or divorce, Title I provides special ways for those people to enroll.

Title II - The federal criminal code and Social Security Act are adjusted by this title. With the intent to reduce abuse, waste, and fraud in healthcare systems, and to make healthcare administration simpler, this part of the act contains seven subtitles.

Title III - Rules on the inclusion of long-term care as a medical service, limits for healthcare expenses out of pre-tax health savings accounts, and tax deductions related to health insurance were all changes to the IRC within Title III.

Title IV - To enforce the regulations created by Title I about retaining insurance and treatment of preexisting conditions, PHSA and IRC were updated.

Title V - Here, tax deductions related to life insurance owned by a company were adjusted, as ruled for income tax when a person has their US citizenship revoked. It additionally removed the financial institution rule to interest allocation rules that were within the IRC.

What Does HIPPA Stand For?

There is no such thing as HIPPA compliance, it's simply a typo. HIPPA has no meaning. HIPAA compliance is the correct term and if you were to type HIPPA compliance into a search engine like Google, the results would redirect to HIPAA results. Therefore, whether you spell it as "HIPAA" or "HIPPA", you will be directed to information about the US health law.

HIPAA vs HIPPA

HIPAA is often misspelled 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. It may be difficult to remember the correct spelling, especially when moving quickly.

How Can I Remember the Correct Spelling of HIPAA?

As mentioned above, remembering the correct spelling of HIPAA is important. A great way to do this is by remembering the complete name of the bill: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, then it will be easier to remember the correct acronym.

Another method to remember the correct spelling is to think of it as NOT being spelled like hippo. If you start writing it as HIPPA, just remember hippo is wrong and switch it to HIPAA.

These two methods will help you use the correct spelling of HIPAA when looking for informatiom.

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