Buzzword: HIPAA
What does it mean? HIPAA refers to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a sweeping law passed by Congress in 1996 to help protect workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. Perhaps the most significant part of HIPAA for consumers is that it makes health records private, setting up a minimum federal standard of protection for individuals. Stronger privacy protective state laws still remain in effect. States are also free to enact stronger protections in the future.
Why the buzz? Most consumers don't know much about HIPAA beyond the privacy policy notification forms they routinely sign when they see a health-care provider for the first time. Under HIPAA, individually identifiable health information generally cannot be used or shared without your written permission. For example, your provider generally cannot give your health information to your employer, share your information for marketing or advertising purposes, or share private notes about your mental-health counseling sessions. That said, the HIPPA privacy rule does not impose disclosure restrictions on the exchange of your medical files for the purposes of treatment, payment, or other health-care operations.
HIPAA is also somewhat of a toothless tiger in terms of enforcement–at least so far. Although the statute establishes civil and criminal penalties for violations, consumers have no right to sue under HIPAA for violations of privacy. Only the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. Department of Justice has the authority to file an action for violation of HIPAA's privacy rules. Consumers can do little more than file a complaint with HHS, and even when they do there is little chance the agency will take any sort of legal action. Indeed, the agency only recently took its first legal action under HIPAA against a health-care provider, imposing a $100,000 penalty on Providence Health and Services of Seattle. HHS has received more than 40,000 complaints since HIPAA went into effect more than five years ago.
For more information:
Health Privacy Project: Myths and Facts about HIPAA
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services State Law Factsheets
—Bob Williams, strategic resource director, Consumers Union
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