Protecting patient data? LOL! All your medical information is going into a government data bank now in preparation for Obamacare. So how did that work out?
The medical professional has always operated under confidentiality as well as the insurance industry. HIPAA's primary goal was to allow terminated employees with insurance coverage and pre-existing conditions to obtain coverage under a new employer without discrimination as long as the terminated employee had no lapse in coverage or failed to maintain it under COBRA.
The privacy part was merely secondary to the original intent.........
Wrong, have you actually read HIPAA? I deal with hospitals who pretend that little disclosure form is all they need to do every single day.