About HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other important purposes.
The Security Rule specifies a series of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information.
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/index.html