Privacy And HIPAA

The protection of the patient privacy and security is essential for the health care providers and hospitals. There are several federal laws and rules aiming to protect the health information of patients. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) gives the authority the right to pass the law to protect the patient privacy. The Privacy rule that passed in 2003 regulates the use and disclosure of the health information. Accordingly, the Protected Health Information that is able to identify to a person or to indicate the health status can be only used or disclosed by covered entities for Treatment, Payment, Operations purposes (TPO), or for the authorization form as the non-TPO purpose. The violation of the Privacy