Laws of the HIPAA Act

HIPAA Privacy Rule

• The "privacy rule" of HIPAA is the most substantial area and the most widely discussed issue. This rule provides that health care providers must make efforts to ensure that oral, written and electronic transmissions of patients' protected health information is safeguarded and kept confidential.
  
  

HIPAA Security Rule

• HIPAA also contains a "security rule." The security rule provides for additional protections of a patient's protected health data, but this rule applies only to electronic transmission of the data.
  
  

HIPAA Enforcement Rule

• In 2006, the final enforcement rule for HIPAA was released. This enforcement rule provides for the procedure for complaints of HIPAA violations. In addition, the rule includes civil monetary penalties that can be assessed for violations of HIPAA.
  
  

Transactions and Code Set Rules

• The transactions and code set HIPAA rules contain specific entities that utilize patient information, and these rules classify the entities and require the entities to abide by HIPAA. For instance, there is a retail pharmacy transaction code, a health care claim transaction code and a benefits enrollments code, among numerous other types of codes.
  
  

Unique Identifiers Rule

• Another part of HIPAA requires health care providers to utilize a national identification number, also known as a unique identifier, when handling protected health information.