Title I of HIPAA maintains that health insurance coverage for individuals and their families will carry on when they transfer or lose employment, and Title II requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and maintain national standards for e-transactions in health care. Title II also speaks to the security and privacy of health data.

The developers of HIPAA felt that such standards would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. health care system by encouraging the secure and private handling of electronic data. For information security purposes, HIPAA requires a double-entry or double-check of data entered by personnel.

With a deadline of April 21, 2005, all U.S. health care organizations had to meet the new HIPAA Security Rule regulations by taking extra measures to secure protected health information. The final version of the Security Rule was published on April 21, 2003.

See Also: Accountability; Privacy; Privacy Laws; Security.