Much of the responsibility for the law falls to medical and health care professionals, to protect personal information and to accommodate and ensure continuity in coverage of health insurance. In Title V the law sets rules for life insurance and for how people who have lost U.S. Title IV sets guidelines for group health insurance plans and rules about pre-existing conditions. b This part of the law sets rules for medical spending accounts and provides for certain deductions in medical insurance.Title II also set minimum standards and rules for protecting patient privacy. This encouraged greater simplicity in administration of health care by encouraging use of electronic records and transactions. It established nationwide standards for electronic records health care transactions. The second title covers the administrative simplicity enacted by the law. In other words, it ensures portability of heath care coverage. The first part of the law ensures continuity in health coverage by protecting that coverage when a worker loses or changes a job. The titles address the issues of privacy, administration, continuity of coverage, and other important factors in the law. HIPAA includes five different titles that outline the rights and regulations allowed and imposed by the law. It improved upon the portability and continuity of health care coverage.

Another thing that the law guarantees is that individuals can continue to receive health insurance coverage when changing or losing a job or when adding a dependent. HIPAA is not just about security and protecting privacy, though. The law also set standards for using and handling electronic records in order to cut back on fraud and abuse and to make administration more streamlined. At the time that HIPAA became a federal law, medical caregivers were already bound by ethical standards to protect patient privacy, but laws were inadequate to guarantee that protection. The transition from analog to digital records for patients left open a window of opportunity for sensitive and very personal information to be misused. The law was enacted as medical records were beginning to be transferred from paper to electronic form.

Other names for the law are the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act and the Kassebaum-Kennedy Act, for two of the leading sponsors when the law was a bill going through both houses of Congress. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a law passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton.

There are certain rights that the law provides for that all people should be aware of so that they can advocate for privacy and for the best possible care. The law includes other provisions, including continuity of care, but for many individuals, the right to confidentiality is most important. The federal law called HIPAA was passed in 1996 to make sure that there would be one nationwide law to protect patient privacy.

Patient confidentiality has been a standard of medical ethics for hundreds of years, but laws that ensure it were once patchy and incomplete. Confidentiality and privacy in health care is important for protecting patients, maintaining trust between doctors and patients, and for ensuring the best quality of care for patients.

Define breach of confidentiality