• (888) 505-7724
  • updates@sbmamec.com
  • Employer Portal
  • Employee Portal
SBMA Benefits
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
  • Services
  • Benefit Plans
  • Employees
  • Employers
  • Resources
    • Compliance Updates
    • No Surprises Act Resource Page
    • COVID-19 Vaccine & Testing Updates
    • SmithRx Formulary
    • COBRA
    • At-Home COVID-19 Tests
  • News & Insights
  • Contact SBMA
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

HIPAA vs FERPA: What’s the Difference?

There are laws in place to protect the privacy of patients and students. Continue reading to learn the difference between HIPAA and FERPA.

What is HIPAA? 

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Under this federal law, patient health information is protected and kept secure unless the patient gives consent to disclose their information. The patient has control of who has access to their records. 

It’s a national mandate to keep protected health information (PHI) secure. At its core, HIPAA regulates the privacy of health information on a national level. 

PHI includes:

  • Your name
  • Your address
  • Your Social Security Number 
  • Medical records 
  • Any unique identifiers 

For example, if parents of a college student call their child’s doctor for an after-visit summary, the office will not be able to disclose any information without the child’s consent. 

Who has to Follow HIPAA Rules? 

Any entity that falls under the category of “covered entities,” must always enforce HIPAA law. These include:

  • Health care providers
  • Health Care Clearinghouses 
  • Health Care Plans
  • Business Associates 

Why is HIPAA Important 

HIPAA keeps personal information secure for patients. It helps build trust between the entity holding private medical information and the patient. Allowing patients the choice to disclose records to whoever they decide keeps sensitive information safe from landing in the wrong hands.  

HIPAA Violations Examples 

HIPAA violations breach patient confidentiality and can result in fines and penalties. Common violations include: 

  • Cyber-attacks or breaches in security 
  • Lack of data encryption 
  • Sending the wrong PHI to a patient 
  • Discussing PHI outside of work 
  • Posting PHI on social media 
  • Theft of equipment that has PHI 
  • Incorrectly disposing of patient records 
Learn more about Affordable Benefits, talk with one of our team members!

What is FERPA

FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act that was implemented in 1974. This law is another federally mandated law that regulates the privacy of student information on a national level. It protects the privacy of student school records that the education system holds. 

Parents or legal guardians have access to the records and can have the records amended, and have the ability to disclose personally identifiable information from education records to their discretion until the student is 18 years old. 

According to the CDC, FERPA serves these two main purposes:

  1. “Gives parents or eligible students more control of their educational records. 
  2. Prohibits educational institutions from disclosing ‘personally identifiable information in education records’ without written consent.” 

Who Has to Follow FERPA Rules?

Any of the following public and private education systems are required to follow FERPA policy when they receive federal funding:

  • Elementary schools 
  • Secondary schools 
  • Post-secondary schools 
  • State and local education agencies 

Why is FERPA Important? 

FERPA is important because it allows students, parents, and legal guardians the ability to review school records, request any corrections that need to be made, and control who has access to the student’s personal identification information.

The education system must request consent from the student, parent, or legal guardian before releasing any personally identifiable information to keep the student’s information safe from the wrong hands. 

FERPA Violations Examples 

The federal government will revoke federal funding to education systems that violate FERPA regulations. Common FERPA violations include: 

  • The education system refuses to provide school records to the student, parents, or legal guardians.
  • School employees who, even unintentionally, disclose the academic standing of one student to other students. 
  • Telling parents about other child’s academic standing that is not their own. 
  • Posting student grades in public places with their names attached 
  • Allowing a parent volunteer to grade the exams of other students

HIPAA VS FERPA

Both HIPAA and FERPA are nationally mandated laws that protect information. HIPAA keeps medical records secure while FERPA keeps education records private. Failure to comply with either results in fines, penalties, or revocation of funding. 

Are you concerned with the HIPAA compliance of your virtual doctor’s appointment? Read about the HIPAA compliance standards that Zoom upholds to ensure your personally identifying information is kept safe in this article.

what's the difference between hipaa and ferpa

Search

Categories

LATEST NEWS IN ACA COMPLIANCE

  • Full-Time vs Part-Time Benefits:Full-Time vs Part-Time Benefits: Why It MattersJanuary 1, 2023 - 7:00 am
  • Affordable care act ACA or Obamacare and stethoscope.Received an ACA Penalty from the IRS? Here’s What to DoDecember 25, 2022 - 12:25 pm
  • affordable care act requirementsACA is Here to StayNovember 20, 2022 - 8:00 am

Archive

CONNECT WITH US

USEFUL LINKS

EMPLOYER PORTAL
EMPLOYEE PORTAL
PRIVACY POLICY 
THE BLOG

CONTACT SBMA

888-505-7724
UPDATES@SBMAMEC.COM

HOURS

Mon – Fri: 7:00am—5:00pm (PST)
Sat: CLOSED
Sun: CLOSED

FOLLOW US

© SBMA 2022 – all rights reserved

site designed by digitalstoryteller.io

© SBMA 2021 – all rights reserved
site designed by digitalstoryteller.io

Reviewing The ACA Times “ACA EMPLOYER PENALTIES ARE REAL AND THE IRS WILL...Who Needs to Provide ACA Benefits?Are these foods actually healthy for you?Are These Foods Actually Healthy? Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Accept settings