HIPAA,HIPPA,or HIPPO: What Really Is the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act?

Abstract

Today, the term “HIPAA” is widely used and misunderstood by many even though personal privacy is a hot topic in society. Technology is beginning to allow people significantly more access to their own and others' personal information. Though the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is still serving the purpose for which it was originally designed, many people believe that the protection it provides is simply not enough for this day and age. Before diving into HIPAA and its flaws, it is important to fully establish what HIPAA is and does to protect our information. Instead of finding the problems with HIPAA regulations, this article examines some ways that HIPAA could be strengthened through amendments to itself or by adding another layer of federal privacy regulation in addition to HIPAA. This article looks toward the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), one of the world's tightest privacy regulations, to find specific ways that HIPAA could be molded into a more stringent regulation of an individual's privacy and sensitive information. Specifics such as introducing the right to erasure and applying these regulations to any entity that encounters or processes an individual's information are just the beginning of supplementing HIPAA and U.S. privacy laws so that most of the population can both understand and be comfortable with how their information is collected and used by others in this technology-driven world.