Football is Life

HIPAA was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 to improve the way health insurance coverage works, especially for people changing or losing jobs. At first, its main goal was to make health insurance more portable and to reduce healthcare fraud and abuse. As technology advanced and more patient information began to be stored electronically, the law was updated to include privacy and security rules. These changes, including the HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule, were created to protect patient health information from being shared or accessed without proper permission.

Today, HIPAA plays a major role in protecting personal health information. It requires doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and other healthcare providers to keep patient information private and secure, whether it’s on paper, in emails, or in digital systems. HIPAA also gives patients important rights, such as the ability to access their medical records, request corrections, and control how their information is shared. It sets rules for how healthcare organizations must handle, store, and share data, and holds them accountable through penalties if those rules are broken.