Which of the following items BEST describes the standards addressed by Title II, Administrative
Simplification, of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (US Kennedy-Kassebaum
Health Insurance and Portability Accountability Act -HIPAA-Public Law 104-19)?

A.
Transaction Standards, to include Code Sets; Security and Electronic Signatures and Privacy

B.
Security and Electronic Signatures and Privacy

C.
Transaction Standards, to include Code Sets; Unique Health Identifiers; Security and Electronic
Signatures and Privacy

D.
Unique Health Identifiers; Security and Electronic Signatures and Privacy

Explanation:
HIPAA was designed to provide for greater access to personal health care information, enable
portability of health care insurance, establish strong penalties for health care fraud, and streamline
the health care claims process through administrative simplification. To accomplish the latter, Title II
of the HIPAA law, Administrative Simplification, requires standardizing the formats for the electronic
transmission of health care information. The transactions and code sets portion includes standards
for submitting claims, enrollment information, premium payments, and others as adopted by HHS.
The standard for transactions is the ANSI ASC X12N version 4010 EDI Standard. Standard code sets
are required for diagnoses and inpatient services, professional services, dental services (replaces D’
codes), and drugs (instead of J’ codes). Also, local codes are not to be used. Unique health identifiers
are required to identify health care providers, health plans, employers, and individuals. Security and
electronic signatures are specified to protect health care information. Privacy protections are
required to ensure that there is no unauthorized disclosure of individually identifiable health care
information. The other answers are incorrect since they do not include all four major standards.
Additional information can be found at http:// aspe.hhs.gov/adminsimp.