The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) strictly regulates the privacy of individually identifiable health information; the HIPAA Security Rule, which sets national standards for the security of electronic protected health information; and the confidentiality provisions of the Patient Safety Rule, which protect identifiable information being used to analyze patient safety events and improve patient safety. They provide protection for patients from medical personnel decisions to disclose medical and financial information to third parties. This act was designed to regulate patient identity theft and insurance fraud.

Source: Business Dictionary