HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 to improve the portability and continuity of workers’ health insurance coverage and to provide protection for the use and disclosure of personally identifiable health information.

The HIPAA legislation is comprised of two main sections.

Title I of HIPAA protects health coverage for workers (and their families) if they change or lose their jobs. It also limits restrictions that a group health plan can place on benefits for preexisting conditions if individuals had health insurance prior to enrolling in the Plan.

Title II of HIPAA is the part of the legislation with which most people are familiar. This section includes the Administrative Simplification provisions to address the security and privacy of health data. It also establishes national standards for electronic transactions of health care data and requires unique, national identifiers for any “covered entity” transmitting health care data, such as providers, insurers, group health plans, and health care clearinghouses. The underlying principle for any disclosure of health-related data is to use only the “minimum information necessary.”