April 1, 2003

Subject: New Federal Standards: HIPAA and UCAR’s Privacy Practices

On April 14, 2003, new federal standards will take effect regarding the privacy of an individual’s health information. These new standards are contained within the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

Attached you’ll find a Notice of Privacy Practices. The HIPAA regulations require that UCAR provide employees with this information, which will advise you of UCAR’s privacy practices with regard to your protected health information. Protected health information (PHI) is defined as information about you, which is maintained by UCAR to carry out certain health care operations such as eligibility, enrollment, payment of premiums and payment of claims on your behalf.

Any health information received by the UCAR Benefits staff is, and shall continue to be, handled in a confidential manner. In fact, certain measures are being taken to better secure such information. Although employees will not notice many of the new measures, one of them requires health plan members to sign an authorization allowing UCAR Benefits staff to assist in resolving health care claim issues on the member’s behalf.

In addition, you are encouraged to review the attached information carefully and review the new UCAR HIPAA Privacy Policy.

If you have questions after reviewing any of this documentation, please contact Laurie Carr, 303-497-8702 or lcarr@ucar.edu.

Neither this notice nor any of the other documentation requires any response from you.