Medical Bills On Credit Report HIPAA Violation? (2022)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law. HIPAA aims to regulate the standards of protecting patient's sensitive health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent.

The focus of HIPAA can be broken down into the following areas:

• Improve healthcare efficiency,
• Improve the portability of health insurance,
• Protection of patients' health care information, and
• Ensure health information is secure and any breaches must be reported.

How Do HIPAA Laws Regulate Medical Debt Collectors?

HIPAA itself is not the act that regulates the reporting of medical bills. It is possible for a creditor, or collections agency to violate the provisions of HIPAA, by illegally securing medical information of indebted patients in an attempt to confirm, or validate a suspected medical debt.

If a medical debt appears on your credit report that you believe breaches the HIPAA confidentiality provisions, for example the information obtained would not be accessible  unless you were aware and consented to the exchange, or it was requested by another medical professional.

You may potentially have the option of suing the debt collection agency for breaching your privacy afforded by HIPPA. Depending on how the information was obtained, it is possible to initiate legal proceedings against the hospital responsible for retaining the security and privacy of your medical records.