To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) included Administrative Simplification provisions that required U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to adopt national standards for electronic healthcare transactions and code sets, unique health identifiers, and security. At the same time, Congress recognized that advances in electronic technology could erode the privacy of health information. Consequently, Congress incorporated into HIPAA provisions that mandated the adoption of Federal privacy protections for individually identifiable health information.