The deputy director of health information privacy for the Health and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has said that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not cover all health information and may sometimes, but not always, apply to health apps that exchange data with electronic health records. In a letter sent on March 26, 2017, OCR's assistant commissioner for civil rights wrote that HIPAA "does not protect any personally identifiable information, including your name, address, or other identifying information."
The deputy director of health information privacy for the Health and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has said that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not cover all health information and may sometimes, but not always, apply to health apps that exchange data with electronic health records. To address the confusion whether and when apps are subject to HIPAA's privacy and security requirements, the OCR launched a portal for developers and others to ask questions anonymously.