The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), is a significant federal law designed to protect the privacy and security of individuals’ health information, and to impose non-discrimination and access requirements with respect to group health plans. What employers may not realize, however, is that HIPAA also has many ramifications for employer-sponsored group health plans, both by virtue of the privacy and security safeguards implemented by HIPAA and due to HIPAA’s regulation of coverage standards for group health plans.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA’s) Privacy Rule and Security Rule are designed to regulate how health plans handle the sensitive information about enrollees that plans maintain.
HIPAA applies only to covered entities, as defined by the statute. Covered entities come in three varieties:
While an employer itself is not subject to HIPAA by virtue of being an employer, if an employer sponsors a group healthcare plan, HIPAA obligations may attach to the...
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