HIPAA is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) require the Department of Health and Human Services to establish national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. It also addresses the security and privacy of health data. Adopting these standards will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in health care. HIPAA includes the Electronic Healthcare Transactions and Code Sets Standard Model Compliance Plan. October 16, 2002 is the deadline date set by the federal Health and Human Services (HHS) for implementing HIPAA standards. Those who submit an Electronic Healthcare Transactions and Code Sets Standard Model Compliance Plan and submit an electronic of paper form before October 16, 2002 receive a one-year extension for compliance as provided by the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act. See http://cms.hhs.gov/hipaa.

Final Rule of HIPAA

The 96 page HIPAA Final Rule, is part of the federal “Administrative Simplification”. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson issued final changes to HHS' health privacy regulations to ensure strong privacy protections while correcting unintended consequences that threatened patients' access to quality health care. These Final Modifications to the Privacy Rule were published in the Federal Register on August 14, 2002. See http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa.

HIPAA Source

HIMSS has a website section HIPAA Source (see http://www.himss.org/hipaasource/hipaasource.asp) that provides updated information on the changing issues surrounding HIPAA.