HIPAA explained: definition, compliance, and violations

HIPAA summary: What is HIPAA?

HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a law passed in 1996 that transformed many of the ways in which the healthcare industry operated in the United States. The law had many important and far-reaching effects, but from the perspective of IT pros, its most important provisions are mandates that health care providers keep any personally identifiable medical information private and secure. These mandates have made the modern world of electronic medical records safer for patients, but also impose a number of sometimes onerous regulations on medical providers and their IT partners, with annual compliance costs estimated at $8.3 billion a year.

To read this article in full, please click here