how the health insurance portability and accountability act hipaa works
the health insurance portability and accountability act hipaa ensures that individual health care plans are accessible portable and renewable and it sets the standards and the methods for how medical data is shared across the u s health system in order to prevent fraud it preempts state law unless the state s regulations are more stringent since 1996 hipaa has been modified to include processes for safely storing and sharing patient medical information electronically 2 it also includes administrative simplification provisions which are aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing administrative costs by establishing national standards in 2009 the health information technology for economic and clinical health act hitech broadened hipaa privacy and security protections the hitech act was enacted as part of the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009 as a way of promoting the use of health information technology a portion of the hitech act addresses privacy and security concerns 3the future of the health insurance portability and accountability act hipaa in 2018 bloomberg law reported on the privacy risks that come from digital healthcare data and the likelihood of updated federal laws in the near future 4 in an age of fitness tracking apps and gps tracked shareable data on everything from an individual s daily step count to their average heart rate medications allergies and even menstrual cycles there are new challenges for upholding standards in storing and protecting personal medical data in a video interview nan halstead health privacy and security attorney with reed smith llp said that future laws are unlikely to expand on hipaa rather they will use hipaa s framework as a model to create new laws governing the digital sector although no such federal laws have yet been passed states can pass laws that fill the gap in the meantime moreover companies tracking consumer data are currently also subject to supervision by regulating bodies like the u s food and drug administration fda and the federal trade commission ftc 