HIPAA guide map
HIPAA Basics Guide
Build a shared vocabulary for covered entities, PHI, the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the decisions that connect them.
Reviewed August 2026
Available guidance
- HIPAA Privacy Rule
Understand how the Privacy Rule protects individually identifiable health information and gives people meaningful rights over their records.
- HIPAA Security Rule
A practical guide to the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards used to protect electronic protected health information.
- Protected Health Information
A plain-English starting point for recognizing PHI, understanding identifiers, and separating HIPAA analysis from broader privacy questions.
- HIPAA Overview
A map of the HIPAA rules, the organizations they reach, and the operational work that turns obligations into evidence.
- Covered Entities
How to analyze whether an organization is a health plan, health care clearinghouse, or covered health care provider under HIPAA.
- Electronic Protected Health Information
A working guide to ePHI, the electronic form of protected health information that the Security Rule safeguards.
- HIPAA Enforcement Rule
What enforcement authority can examine, investigate, and resolve alleged HIPAA violations—and how organizations can prepare.