About HIPAA

 The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the federal law that helps protect your right to health coverage when you move from one health plan to another health plan. HIPAA protects your right to enroll in a plan that is offered by your job regardless of your health status, protects you from being charged more than your coworkers based on your health status for job-based coverage, and makes it more difficult for an insurer to refuse to cover an illness you had before you joined the health plan. These protections, however, are not available in every circumstance.

The extent of protection that HIPAA offers depends on what kind of insurance plan you currently have (or had previously) and what kind of insurance plan you are moving into. People who move from one employer- sponsored plan (also known as group coverage) to another employer-sponsored plan generally have the greatest protection, while people who are joining an individual plan, whether they are currently uninsured or in another individual plan, generally have the least protection. As explained in the Definitions, the group coverage protections may not apply to some plans for government workers or church employees. Please check the resources for more details.

Because HIPAA protections are not the same in every circumstance, consumers often find themselves unsure of how HIPAA will affect them and their families. This chart will help you figure out whether and how HIPAA will protect you and your family as you move from one health plan to another. You will find information on whether a plan can refuse to enroll you just because you are sick, whether a plan can charge you more based on your health status, and whether a plan can refuse to cover an illness you had before you joined it.

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