What is the main purpose of the Health Insurance Portability Act of 1966 (HIPAA)?

The main purpose of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is to create privacy and security standards for health information. This landmark legislation was designed to protect patients’ personal health information from being disclosed without their consent or knowledge. It established national standards for the protection of electronically protected health information (ePHI), ensuring that patients' sensitive data remains confidential while facilitating the exchange of health information in a secure manner.

By focusing on privacy and security, HIPAA sets guidelines that healthcare providers, health plans, and other entities must follow when dealing with patient information. This includes requirements for safeguarding electronic records, establishing patients' rights over their health information, and imposing penalties for violations, all of which fortify the trust between patients and healthcare providers.

The other choices do not accurately reflect HIPAA's primary objective. While treatment guidelines and patient check-in protocols relate to healthcare practices, they do not pertain to the confidentiality and integrity of health information as the main focus of HIPAA does. Regulating insurance premium costs is also outside the scope of HIPAA, as it primarily deals with administrative simplification and the protection of health information rather than financial aspects of insurance.