There are two parts to HIPPA. The part the public and the health care industry fret about is the "private information" part. However, the second part of HIPPA is never mentioned. Welcome to the world of bogus law making. HIPPA was sold to the public as the "great protector" of your health information. Sounds great, if you have a health problem, you can be sure your care takers will be vigilant with your info. Who would protest such a law ?? No one would complain about a law that keeps info about your health problems secret !! Toss HIPPA in front of the uninformed and most propagandized people on earth ( the American public) and the law passes with no opposition at all. Let's look at the part of HIPPA the American people know nothing about. The insurance company's do not want to insure sick people, period. Sick people decrease profits. Let's say you work at company A, and company A has an insurance company they use to insure their workers. Ten years later you want to work for company B.. Maybe you were fired or maybe company B just pays better, closer to home, nicer bosses, any of a thousand reasons. During your ten years at company A you developed heart disease. Company B has a different insurance company than company A, so why worry about a thing ??? Company A's insurance company will not say a world about your problem to company's B's insurance company.....right???
Wrong. Company Bs insurance company will learn all about your health history from the other company. Its the "Portability" part of HIPPA. That's right, every test, doctors appointment, surgery, will be passed on without your permission. Your potential new boss will not know about your history. However your new boss will get a heads up on the cost of putting you on his team. Surprise, not a whole lot of protection on the back end of HIPPA. It is tricky legal ground for an employer to refuse a position based of health history. Refuse a position based on cost is a different story. HIPPA is needed. My neighbors do not need to know my health issues, that's fair. HIPPA was sold to us under that pretense. However, the real motive behind HIPPA is insurance company profit at the expense of your privacy.