HIPAA has led to sweeping changes to health care administration and information systems as health care organizations struggle to achieve cost-effective compliance by 2003.All health care entities that process health-related data are required to comply with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The U.S. Congress designed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996. Title I of HIPAA safeguards health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they lose or change their jobs. According to title II of HIPAA, the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions, necessitates the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers. The AS provisions also address the security and privacy of health data. The purpose of all these standards is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the extensive use of electronic data transactions in health care. HIPAA is designed to regulate the way all health care organizations electronically exchange sensitive patient data and to protect patients from illegal disclosure of their medical records (whether paper or electronic). It means that if personal information is stored on ...