Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
A U.S. federal law establishing national standards for protecting the privacy and security of individuals' health information and enabling continuity of coverage. Its Privacy and Security Rules govern how providers, payers, and vendors handle and safeguard protected health information.
What is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a United States federal law that sets national rules for protecting the privacy and security of individuals' health information, while also supporting continuity of insurance coverage when people change jobs. Its Privacy Rule governs how protected health information may be used and disclosed, and its Security Rule sets safeguards for electronic data.
The law applies to covered entities such as providers and health plans, as well as to the business associates and vendors that handle protected health information on their behalf.
Why is HIPAA important in healthcare?
HIPAA defines the baseline obligations every organization must meet to safeguard patient data, and violations can bring significant penalties and reputational harm. It shapes how staff access records, how information is shared, and how systems are secured.
For a surgery center and the revenue-cycle teams that support it, compliance touches everyday workflows, including billing, claims transmission, and any technology vendor that touches patient data. Building HIPAA requirements into operations is a condition of handling that information at all.
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