The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and health information by limiting the use and release of personal health data and giving patients more control, while also allowing for public health responsibilities and enforcement by the Office for Civil Rights with penalties for violations. The rule creates protections for protected health information held by covered entities and business associates from improper use and disclosure, and provides standards for individuals' privacy rights. Reducing HIPAA complaints requires educating employees on HIPAA laws and their impact on both organizations and individuals.

1. What is HIPAA
The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (“HHS”) issued the Privacy Rule to
implement the requirement of the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 (“HIPAA”).1 The Privacy Rule standards
address the use and disclosure of individuals’
health information—called “protected health
information” by organizations subject to the
Privacy Rule — called “covered entities,” as well
as standards for individuals' privacy rights to
understand and control how their health
information is used.

2. The HIPPA Privacy Rule
The rule creates national standards to protect
individual medical records and other personal
health information.
The rule:
• * Gives patients more control over their
health information.
• * Sets boundaries on the use and release of
health records.

3. HIPPA Rules Continued
• * Establishes appropriate safeguards that
health care providers and others must achieve
to protect the privacy of health information.
• * Holds violators accountable with civil and
criminal penalties that can be imposed if they
violate patient's privacy rights.
• * Takes into account public responsibility to
disclose some forms of data to protect public
health.

4. Who enforce HIPAA Rules
The Office for Civil Rights enforces the HIPAA
Privacy Rule, which protects 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.

5. Complaints by Calendar Year

6. Reducing HIPAA Complaints
The most effective way to reduce HIPAA
complaints is to educate employee’s of the
HIPAA laws and the effect they can have on
the organization as well as the individual.

7. Reference
Health Information Privacy. Retrieved March 1,
2013, from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/
March 1, 2013. Summary of the HIPAA Privacy
Rule. Retrieved from
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understan