Children's Hospital and all other hospitals across the nation worked hard to meet the April 14, 2003, deadline for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, often referred to as HIPAA.

Children's Hospital has always been dedicated to patient privacy. The HIPAA privacy regulations provide hospitals and patients with an additional means to help guarantee that patient privacy continues to be a top priority in the United States.

HIPAA includes regulations that govern the use and release of a patient's personal health information and limits the kinds of information hospitals can disclose regarding patients. Besides privacy standards, HIPAA creates new standards for administrative transactions and the security of individual health information.

The rules are beneficial for patients because they strengthen and set national standards for the privacy of medical information. They guarantee strong privacy rights to patients and families in a common-sense manner, and the rules give patients more control over who can see their private medical information.

Implementation of HIPAA at Children's Hospital required a variety of operational changes throughout the hospital and in our relationship with many contractors.