FPM Articles About the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996

This series of FPM articles is designed to educate and prepare family physicians for the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is actually composed of several sets of standards (transactions and code sets, privacy and security) developed by the Department of Health and Human Services at the behest of Congress, which passed the HIPAA legislation in 1996. The goals of the standards are to simplify the administration of health insurance claims and lower costs, give patients more control and access to their health care information, and protect individually identifiable medical information from real or potential threats of loss or disclosure. For more information about HIPAA, see the FPM articles below or visit the AAFP's HIPAA home page.