HIPAA: KEY DEFINITIONS

Authorization:
A customized document that affords a covered entity permission to use specified PHI for purposes other than Treatment, Payment and Healthcare Operations (TPO).

Business Associate:
A person or organization that performs a function or activity on behalf of a covered entity but is not a member of the entities workforce, they can also be a covered entity in their own right.

Chain of Trust (COT):
A HIPAA Security NPRM term used to describe a pattern of agreements that extend protection of healthcare data. The term require that each entity involved in sharing healthcare data with other entities, require that any other entities with the same HIPAA compliance requirements.

Code Set:
Any set of codes used for encoding data elements, such as tables of terms, medical concepts, medical diagnosis codes or medical procedure codes.

Consent:
The privacy rule establishes a requirement that covered entities obtain a written consent from a patient before disclosing PHI to carry out TPO.

Covered Entity:
A health plan or healthcare clearinghouse or provider that transmits any health information in connection with the provision of healthcare services, including referrals and claims submission.

Designated Record Set (DRS):
Any item, collection, or grouping of information that includes PHI and is maintained, collected, used or disseminated by or for a covered entity.

Disclosure:
Represents a release of information to external persons or organizations.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI):
Represents X12 and similar variable-length formats involved in electronic exchange of structured data. It is broadly used to represent any electronic exchange of formatted data.

Individually Identifiable HealthCare Information (IIHI): Any piece of information or data that uniquely identifies an individual or by which a person's identity could be reasonably determined, including patient demographics, information relating to past, present and future conditions and billing information.

Minimum Necessary:
All reasonable efforts are made not to disclose, or request, more PHI than is necessary to accomplish the intended purpose.

Protected Health Information (PHI): Any information relating to an individual's physical or mental health, the provision of that individual's healthcare or the payment for that healthcare that has been maintained or transmitted electronically and that can reasonably be identified with the individual it applies to.

Further information

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