Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) provides baseline privacy and security standards for medical information. Under HIPAA, any information that is created or received by any covered entity, such as schools, relating to a physical or mental health condition, treatment provided or payment for healthcare is covered by the Privacy Rule. The HIPAA Privacy Rule applies to Protected Health Information (PHI), which includes all individually identifiable health information that is transmitted using any format or medium. This includes paper, electronic or oral methods of communication.
Student health information in education records is protected by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Therefore, the HIPAA Privacy Rule excludes such information from its coverage.