The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: Is It Really All That Bad?

Abstract

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was developed in 1996 and became part of the Social Security Act. The primary purpose of the HIPAA rules is to protect health care coverage for individuals who lose or change their jobs. However, HIPAA also includes Title II, better known as the Administrative Simplification Act. Title II requires the health care industry to become more efficient by encouraging the use of electronic media for transmission of certain patient administrative data. To make the public feel more secure with electronic transmission of data, the government developed privacy and security rules to complement the transaction rules. HIPAA rules on electronic transactions, code sets, and privacy have been finalized; dates of finalization vary depending on the individual rules. While details of the rules may be modified, their essence and breadth will live indefinitely. It took Congress numerous attempts over a decade to get these regulations in place. Congress is not going to back down now. The country is still waiting on the final HIPAA rules related to national identifiers and security.