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![handle is hein.crs/crsahql0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20934
Updated April 30, 2003
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
A Brief Summary of the HIPAA Medical
Privacy Rule
Gina Marie Stevens
Legislative Attorney
American Law Division
Summary
This report provides a brief overview of the modified HIPAA Privacy rule,
Standards for the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health nformation(privacy
rule) published on August 14, 2002 by the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS).1 Issuance of the modified Privacy Rule by the Bush Administration is the
culmination of a decades long debate over access to medical records that has pitted
privacy advocates and civil libertarians against employers and much of the health care
industry. As required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 (HIPAA), a privacy rule was issued in December 2000, and modified August
2002. The privacy rule went into effect April 14, 2001, with compliance required by
April 2003 for most entities.2 The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes a set of basic
consumer protections and a series of regulatory permissions for uses and disclosures of
protected health information. S. 16, introduced in the 108'h Congress by Senator
Daschle, would reverse some modifications to the rule. This report will be updated.
Background. In recent years, our society has come to rely increasingly on medical
information to perform basic functions and to make decisions about individuals.
However, a number of fundamental developments have threatened the confidentiality of
health-care information, and are the cause of a great deal of concern. The emergence of
third-party payment plans; the use of health-care information for non-health care
purposes; the growing involvement of government agencies in virtually all aspects of
health care; and the exponential increase in the use of computers and automated
information systems for health record information have combined to put substantial
pressure on traditional confidentiality protections. In addition, an increasing number of
parties involved in health care treatment, payment, and oversight have routine access to
personally identifiable health records. Greater utilization of health-care information
Congressional Research Service +** The Library of Congress
1 [http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/combinedregtext.pdf].
2 SeCRS Report RS2 1505, Compliance with the HIPAA Medical Privacy Rule, by Gina Stevens.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/crsahql0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)