What Is Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act? 
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act provides protections for an individual 's personal health information . If gives patients numerous rights in that area . As a practical matter , it insures that person health information is not made available to parties without the express permission of the individual . Although there are exceptions about the sharing of information between healthprofessionals , inherent in the act is the fact that we should have control of who sees our health information and how that information is used . That expectation of privacy is extended to prevent family members from gaining information without one 's knowledge and permission . 