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The History of HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known by its initials HIPAA, was an act delivered in Congress in 1996 that protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families while between jobs. Among many other things, HIPAA establishes standards for electronic health care transactions around the United States and addresses the issues of privacy and security of health care information.

  1. Title I and II

    • Passed on August 21, 1996, HIPAA began with just Title 1 and Title 2 of the act. Title 1, at the time of passing, addressed problems with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act. Title 2 served to define many of the civil and criminal acts committed involving health care, and established penalties for these acts.

    The Privacy Rule

    • Taking effect on April 14, 2003, the Privacy Rule enacted with HIPAA regulates the use of certain information with different health care organizations. It covers medical records and payment histories and established the use of Protected Health Information, known as PHI. The act allowed health insurance subscribers to appeal any violations of this act to the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

    Code Sets Rule

    • The Code Set Rules, passed in 2005, were enacted to force medical providers to file their information electronically. These rules included acts to define structures for documents, to authorize agent requests, to inquire about benefits eligibility, to set a premium for insurance products, to regulate retail pharmacy claims and to submit billing information.

    Security Rule

    • Another rule essential to the transformed version of HIPAA, the Security Rule was enacted February 20, 2003. It provided administrative safeguards, physical safeguards and technical safeguards for the use and handling of health insurance related information. These measures were enacted to provide security for the insured, the health insurance company, an organization providing the insurance to an employee, and the family or dependents of the insured.

    Unique Identifiers and Enforcement Rules

    • The last two rules, the Enforcement Rule and the Unique Identifiers Rule, were passed in February 2006 and May 2006, respectively. The Enforcement Rule established final penalties for any and all HIPAA violations. The Unique Identifiers Rule covered electronic transactions made by insurance companies and forced each entity to be assigned with a National Provider Identified number, or NPI.

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