Business Associates: These businesses are vendors or subcontractors that have access to PHI. They include but are not limited to healthcare insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid. Health Plans: Health plans are organizations that pay for medical services or enroll people in insurance. Medical billing services are HealthCare Clearinghouses. Healthcare Clearinghouses: Clearinghouses take the practice data in the form of PHI and prepare it before transmitting it to other entities. Healthcare Providers: Doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmacies, therapists are considered healthcare providers and must be HIPAA compliant. There are four categories of covered entities. HIPAA states that a covered entity is any business with access to PHI. 
Often the best approach is to partner with a qualified expert to ensure that your business is meeting the requirements. Confusion over HIPAA requirements not only potentially exposes your customers’ PHI, they also can cost your business thousands of dollars in penalties. All employees and business associates of a required entity are required to ensure that PHI is protected in accordance with these rules. The rules are lengthy and detailed, covering over 100 pages of policy and regulations. The requirements are subject to change to address changing technologies, cyberthreats, or public health matters like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The HIPAA Security Rules require that covered entities safeguard all electronic health information from security threats, ensure that the information is accurate, confidential, and available, protect against inappropriate use or disclosure of data, and certify workforce compliance. 
The rules also ensure patient access to their records and the opportunity to agree or object to disclosures. Some covered uses include treatment and payment, limited public interest, and research initiatives.
The HIPAA Privacy Rules outline permissible uses and disclosures of PHI. These national standards include HIPAA Privacy Rules and HIPAA Security Rules. PHI is defined as any information that includes personally identifiable information about health status, health care that was provided, and payment for that care. This important legislation codified protections to safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI) for individuals. It’s hard to believe that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted twenty-five years ago.
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