The HIPAA Privacy Rule's Impact on the Cost, Access, and Quality of Health Care

Congress recognized the need for national patient record privacy standards in 1996 when they enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). While the law included provisions designed to save money for health care businesses by encouraging electronic transactions, it also required new safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of that information. The law gave Congress until August 21, 1999 to pass comprehensive health privacy legislation. When that did not happen, the law required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to craft such protections by regulation - The Privacy Rule. The initial proposed regulations were published in November 1999 and attracted over 52,000 comments. The final rule was published in December 2000 with an effective date of April 14, 2001. As required by law most covered entities have two years - until April 14, 2003 to comply with the final rule's provisions.