What does adherence to HIPAA primarily protect?

Adherence to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) primarily protects patient privacy and confidentiality. The focus of HIPAA is to safeguard individuals' medical information and ensure that sensitive patient data is handled with care by healthcare providers, insurance companies, and other related entities. This is accomplished through a set of rules that dictate how personal health information (PHI) can be used and shared.

The act establishes national standards for the protection of health information, granting patients rights over their own data, such as the right to access their medical records and the right to request corrections. By enforcing standards for confidentiality, HIPAA helps to maintain the trust between patients and healthcare systems, encouraging individuals to seek care without fear of their personal health information being improperly disclosed or misused. Thus, the primary objective of HIPAA adherence is to ensure that patient privacy and confidentiality are upheld within the healthcare industry.