HIPAA – In Relation To Global MED-NET

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) does not apply to Global MED-NET (“GMN”). The entities HIPAA does apply to are: health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those healthcare providers who conduct certain financial and administrative transactions electronically. The purpose of HIPAA is to regulate and protect electronically maintained or transmitted individual health information by these covered entities. GMN is not any of these entities.

HIPAA also extends to other types of organizations that may “touch” or use protected health information indirectly to the extent that they are “business associates’. A business associate is an entity that receives protected health information from a HIPAA covered entity (i.e. doctor or hospital forwarding a member’s information directly to GMN). Even in this scenario, HIPAA compliance still would not apply directly to GMN, but rather to the entity sending GMN the information.