Data field standards and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

The Administrative Simplification Title of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 addresses the creation and adoption of nationwide standards for the electronic exchange and confidentiality protection of all individually identified data used in health care administration. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is implementing standards under this law. In addition to new standards, the law mandates that the Congress pass a health information privacy bill by August 1999 or that the DHHS adopt privacy protections for health information by February 2000. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.