The HIPAA stands for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This federal Act protects the privacy of patient information from third parties. Therefore, most healthcare providers such as healthcare insurance companies, hospitals, etc. can only disclose patient information in cases when the HIPAA allows the disclosure. Under the HIPAA, apart from disclosing the patient’s information for treatment purposes, only “the minimum necessary to accomplish the purpose of the disclosure” can be revealed.