HIPAA
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. A privacy rule finalized in August 2002 to create national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information. HIPPA gives patients more control over their health information, sets boundaries on the use and release of health records, establishes appropriate safeguards that health care providers must achieve to protect the privacy of health information and holds violators accountable with civil and criminal penalties that can be imposed if they violate patients’ privacy rights.
