HIPAA is an acronym for the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (also known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Act, Public Law 104-191) that was enacted in 1996. HIPAA includes provisions that require hospitals, physicians, and managed care companies to adopt medical information security, privacy, and data standards or face penalties.  HIPAA directed the Department of Health and Human Services to publish new rules to ensure the standardization of electronic health data and develop security standards to protect the confidentiality and integrity of individually identifiable health information.

In essence, the Act stipulates that patient-specific information should be available only to health workers who have a need to know it-those who are involved in the direct care, administrative services, or billing for that patient.  Emergency access to data for immediate health- and life-protecting needs is specifically protected by the Act.

The Miller Family Medicine Clinic maintains full compliance with all aspects of patient privacy as specified by the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.