The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, was originally enacted on August 21, 1996. The purpose of HIPAA was, “to improve the portability and continuity of health insurance cover in the group and and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery” (HIPAA). However, as health information technology evolved the privacy of health information became a concern. Healthcare was beginning to revolve around electronic healthcare transactions and patients’ health information was being stored using electronic health record. In November 1999, the United States Department of Health and Human Services proposed the Privacy Rule. Just over a year later, in December 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services enacted the HIPAA Privacy Rule, followed by the HIPAA Security Rule in February 2003. The HIPAA Privacy Rule created federal standards in protecting health information while also giving patients rights over their health information. According to the Department of Health and Human Services: The Privacy Rule standards address the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information – called “protected health information” by …show more content…
In fact, while electronic health records are the central component of health information technology infrastructures, they are still just a component. Other elements include personal health record, which a collection of an individual’s information that the individual keeps, and health information exchange. Two other types of health information technology include picture archiving and communication systems and vendor neutral archives. While a personal health record is kept by the individual, just as it is important to protect electronic health record systems it is also important to protect the other health information technology