Final answer:
True, HIPAA sets federal standards that require businesses involved in healthcare to strictly maintain the confidentiality of patient records, although there are limited exceptions, particularly to protect public health.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement is True: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets federal standards to protect a patient's medical record. Enacted in 1996, HIPAA ensures that businesses handling health information, like healthcare providers and insurance companies, maintain the Confidentiality of patient records. This protection extends to all forms of patient records, including electronic ones, and makes it illegal to share information without patient consent, except in legally specified situations.
HIPAA does admit limited exceptions to protect public health. For example, it may be permissible to contact a patient's sexual partners in the case of certain communicable diseases, but care must be taken to do this without disclosing the patient's identity or diagnosis. Developing policies balancing treatment costs, patient quality of life, and privacy risks requires addressing questions including how much information to share, with whom, and under what circumstances.