Answer: It's HIPAA, not HIPPA. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPPA is a common misspelling, as it is naturally intuitive to put two Ps together in the middle of a word (think oppose or appear), rather than 2 As at the end of the word.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Public Law 104-191, was enacted on August 21, 1996. Sections 261 through 264 of HIPAA require the Secretary of HHS to publicize standards for the electronic exchange, privacy, and security of health information. Collectively these are known as the Administrative Simplification provisions.
HIPAA required the Secretary to issue privacy regulations governing individually identifiable health information if Congress did not enact privacy legislation within three years of the passage of HIPAA. Because Congress did not enact privacy legislation, HHS developed a proposed rule and released it for public comment on November 3, 1999. The Department received over 52,000 public comments. The final regulation, the Privacy Rule, was published on December 28, 2000.
