Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

What is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act?

In 1996, the government of the United States introduced the health insurance Portability and Accountability Act that made it mandatory for the medical faculty and healthcare service providers to protect the personal information of the patient. The hospitals and medical care departments cannot release the patients’ confidential information to the public without the patient’s consent. It gives each individual the right to know how the medical faculty uses their private information. HIPAA standards law helped patients ensure that their privacy will be maintained by hospitals and healthcare companies.

The Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act explains how the medical data of each individual is supposed to be preserved. It also states the standards that the health care service providers need to follow when sharing this data across the United States. The law is mainly introduced to prevent fraud and misuse of the patient’s personal information. Ever since the act was launched, there have been constant amendments to the law.

HIPAA Standards

The US government has modified the law to guarantee security to the patients. The law doesn’t only apply to the hospitals and healthcare service providers, but the standards mentioned by the act must be followed by health insurance, healthcare billing, and other such sectors. Every entity that stores the patient’s confidential details, such as their contact information and their ailments or medical reports, must comply with the HIPAA standards. If the company fails to adhere to this compliance, they will be subject to penalties.

As safe as it sounds, complying with the HIPAA standard is getting quite difficult in the digital age. The fitness-monitoring and GPS apps store a large volume of the individual’s personal information. This includes their heart rate, allergies, current medications, ailments, and menstrual cycles. Now, protecting the data has become extremely challenging. As mentioned before, the government modified HIPAA many times in the past few years. In 2009, HITECH improved the functionality and overall security options in this act.

HIPAA Challenges

According to the Bloomberg reports of 2018, the security risk of data hacks in this digital age is growing rapidly. With all the technology-driven apps launched for advanced medical facilities and treatment options, it has become quite challenging for the users to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. There is a good chance the government might introduce new changes to the act in the coming years.

It is important to note that only selected companies are supposed to comply with the HIPAA standards. For example, all medical sectors that store patient’s private information have to understand and comply with the HIPAA regulations. However, companies like Apple and Fitbit do not need to follow the act and comply with the security standards set by the government.

Experts believe that HIPAA standards might not be expanded or amended in the future, but there is a chance the government can introduce a new security law that resembles the HIPAA regulations. These laws will be designed for the companies that track and store patients’ confidential information.