HIPAA Privacy Compliance. The HIPAA Privacy Rule, effective April 14, 2003, established national standards to guard the privacy of a patient's protected health information. Protected health information includes:

• Information created or received by a health care provider or health plan that includes health information or health care payment information plus information that personally identifies the individual patient or plan member.
• Personal identifiers include: a patient's name and email, web site and home addresses; identifying numbers (including Social Security, medical records, insurance numbers, biomedical devices, vehicle identifiers and license numbers); full facial photos and other biometric identifiers; and dates (such as birth date, dates of admission and discharge, death).

UC Contacts: All UC campuses have appointed a HIPAA Privacy Officer. The Privacy Officer is the local campus administrative resource for implementation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Guidelines: This information provides guidance to directors and managers in their implementation of the HIPAA privacy rule.

Notice of Privacy Practices: These notices describe how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information.

Educational Modules: PowerPoint presentations have been developed as templates to facilitate staff training on the specifics of the privacy rule

UC Self-funded Health Plans: The University of California offers various health care plans to its employees and retirees; some are funded by the University and others are fully insured by an insurance carrier. The plan provider, whether the University of California or an insurance carrier, is required by HIPAA to provide a notice of privacy practices.