CHAPTER 3

It’s Not Just HIPAA

Legislating Privacy and Security

Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.

—proverb

I remember the first time I signed a HIPAA privacy notice before a routine checkup. It was a rather lengthy form, and the practitioner wasn’t terribly interested in having me read the whole thing but was rather insistent that I “initial here” and “sign there” so that the paper could be filed away, I assumed, in case there was some sort of a lawsuit involving the disclosure of my personal information.

In fact, what I had signed was not the medical equivalent of a liability waiver like the ones that I had signed before venturing out on Jet Ski excursions or parasailing adventures. Rather, it was a standard ...

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