HIPAA
HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. In plain terms, it’s the federal law that protects your private medical information.
It means your doctor, hospital, or insurance company cannot share your health information — diagnoses, test results, medications, visit notes — without your permission. It applies to anyone involved in your healthcare: doctors, nurses, pharmacies, insurers, and their business partners.
Three things it covers in practice:
Privacy — who can see your medical records and under what circumstances.
Security — how your digital health information must be stored and protected from breaches.
Portability — your right to get a copy of your own records and transfer them to another provider.
The one thing most people don’t realize: HIPAA does not prevent a doctor from talking to another doctor about your care. It’s specifically about protecting your information from being shared outside your care team without your consent — employers, marketers, family members, anyone who doesn’t have a clinical need to know.