In 1996, Congress passed the HIPAA Act that contain provisions for persons covered in an employer sponsored insurance plan, to move from one employer to another without regard to their health conditions if they change their employment.

The Act prohibits screening or testing information to deny insurance coverage. HIPAA also contains tax incentives for long term care insurance.

Due to the electronic submission of claims HIPAA requires new standards for claims filing, electronic submission of claims, standards for attachments and standardization of the diagnostic and procedural coding as well protection for the transmission of electronic data. This is also known as the Privacy Act. HIPAA protects and has sets standards for the confidentiality of patient medical records, Patient Health Information (PHI) and security.