home > human resources

HIPAA and MVP

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) placed a number of new regulations on certain employer benefit plans. Significant portions of the HIPAA legislation concern privacy. Effective April 14, 2003 MVP will not discuss any personal information about a plan member with anyone other than the plan member without a signed authorization form. This is to safeguard an individual's protected health information (PHI) as required by HIPAA.

MVP has established the following procedures:

• Before MVP can discuss any personal health information with a plan member, they will ask for the MVP ID number or Social Security Number, date of birth, and address.
• If a plan member calls to discuss a situation involving a spouse or an adult dependent, MVP will need an authorization form signed by the spouse or adult dependent before they will discuss the situation with the caller. Authorization forms are not required if you are the parent or guardian of a child under 18.
• If you would like the Health Benefits Administrator to act on your behalf to a specific continuing problem, the employee, spouse, or adult child, must sign and submit an authorization form to MVP allowing MVP to disclose his or her information to the Health Benefits Representitive.