Primary goals of HIPAA law

The U.S. Congress passed HIPAA to:

• Improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets
• Combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery
• Promote the use of medical savings accounts
• Improve access to long term care services and coverage
• Simplify the administration of health insurance

HIPAA isn’t only about ensuring the continuation of health insurance for individuals changing employment, but it is about protecting the privacy of patient or health plan member records and any other individually identifiable health information in any form.

In order to enable these sweeping goals, the original HIPAA legislation included a number of titles, each addressing a different facet of the overall objective.

• Title I: Healthcare Insurance Access, Portability, and Renewability
• Title II: Preventing Healthcare Fraud and Abuse; Administrative Simplification; Medical Liability Reform
• Title III: Tax-related Health Provisions
• Title IV: Application and Enforcement of Group Health Insurance Requirements
• Title V: Revenue Offsets