The HIPAA rule that covers disclosure and protection of personal health information which is stored electronically is the?

• A. Privacy Rule
• B. Security Rule
• C. Breach Notification Rule
• D. Transactions and Code Sets Rule

Answer: (B)

Protecting electronic PHI is the focus here. The Security Rule establishes the safeguards needed to protect electronic personal health information and to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It outlines administrative, physical, and technical safeguards such as risk assessments, access controls, authentication, encryption, audit controls, and transmission security. These measures specifically address how ePHI is stored, accessed, and disclosed, making it the rule most directly responsible for the protection and secure disclosure of PHI in electronic form.

In contrast, the Privacy Rule governs patients’ privacy rights and the general permissible uses and disclosures of PHI (not limited to electronic data). The Breach Notification Rule deals with reporting breaches of unsecured PHI, and the Transactions and Code Sets Rule deals with standardized electronic data interchange formats.