HIPAA - General Information

The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. To date, the implementation of HIPAA standards has increased the use of electronic data interchange. Provisions under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 will further these increases and include requirements to adopt:

• operating rules for each of the HIPAA covered transactions
• a unique, standard Health Plan Identifier (HPID)
• a standard and operating rules for electronic funds transfer (EFT) and electronic remittance advice (RA) and claims attachments.

In addition, health plans will be required to certify their compliance. The Act provides for substantial penalties for failures to certify or comply with the new standards and operating rules.

For more information regarding HIPAA including additional provisions under the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act or ACA) of 2010, go to the "Related Links Outside CMS".