History

History of HIPAA

HIPAA is the acronym for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 - (Public Law 104-191), which was signed into law on August 21, 1996 by President Clinton. HIPAA legislation was enacted in response to national concerns for the need for health care insurance reform and in a direct response to the failure of the Clinton Health Care proposals of 1994. HIPAA is also referred to as the Kassenbaum-Kennedy Act named after the original sponsors of the bill - Senators Nancy Kassenbaum (R-KS) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA). HIPAA is part of a broad Congressional attempt at incremental healthcare reform with requirements outlined by the law and the regulations promulgated by DHHS that have a far-reaching impact. The primary purpose of HIPAA is to enable employees and their families to transfer health care benefits from one employer to another, or to continue coverage in the case of a layoff. Recognizing that this new law would impose an additional administrative burden on providers, payers, and employers, lawmakers noted that the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the overall health care system could be significantly improved by eliminating the administrative burdens associated with paper-based processes. HIPAA is a major issue in healthcare.