Legislation and Regulations

Question 1

CLAS Standards: What does CLAS stand for?

Answer 1

Culturally and

Linguistically

Appropriate

Services

Question 2

CLAS Standards: What is their objective?

Answer 2

• Advance health equity
• Improve quality
• Help eliminate health care disparities

Question 3

CLAS Standards: How will they achieve their objective?

Answer 3

Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to:

• diverse cultural health beliefs and practices
• preferred languages
• health literacy
• other communication needs

Question 4

CLAS Standards: “Communication and Language Assistance” Standards

Answer 4

• Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.
• Inform all individuals of the availability of language assistance services clearly and in their preferred language, verbally and in writing.
• Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance, recognizing that the use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided.
• Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area.

Question 5

HIPAA: What does HIPAA stand for?

Answer 5

• *H**ealth
• *I**nsurance

Portability and

Accountability

Act

of 1996

Question 6

HIPAA: What is the Privacy Rule?

Answer 6

The Privacy Rule standards address the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information—called “protected health information” by organizations subject to the Privacy Rule — called “covered entities,” as well as standards for individuals’ privacy rights to understand and control how their health information is used.

Question 7

HIPAA: What is the primary goal of the Privacy Rule?

Answer 7

Assure that individuals’ health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high quality health care and to protect the public’s health and well being.

Question 8

HIPAA: What is “Protected Health Information”?

Answer 8

The Privacy Rule protects all “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. The Privacy Rule calls this information “protected health information (PHI).”

“Individually identifiable health information” is information, including demographic data, that relates to:
• the individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
• the provision of health care to the individual, or
• the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the
individual

and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe can be used to identify the individual.

Individually identifiable health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number).