The The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule requires specific measures to safeguard your electronic protected health information to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and security.

A few of the safety measures built in to electronic health record (EHR) systems to protect your medical record may include:

1. “Access control” tools like passwords and PIN numbers, to limit access to patient information to authorized individuals, like the patient's doctors or nurses.
2. "Encrypting" stored information. That means health information cannot be read or understood except by someone who can “decrypt” it, using a special “key” made available only to authorized individuals.