HIPAA Help for Social Workers

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability of Act (HIPAA) of 1996 generated several sets of federal regulations applicable to mental health and health care practitioners, including social workers.

NASW has analyzed HIPAA’s medical privacy regulations in context with the NASW Code of Ethics, highlighted key issues, and interpreted the regulations for clinical social work practice to assist members in meeting their regulatory responsibilities under HIPAA.

NASW has provided members with a wealth of information and resources on HIPAA as it relates to social work practice. These include a set of online HIPAA forms, office policies, and sample documents that can be adapted to an individual social workers’ clinical practice settings; federal government agency resources; practice updates; and Legal Issue of the Month articles. NASW has consolidated this information into this one easy access point for information about HIPAA for social workers.

Please note: 

Social workers who work with students in educational institutions should be familiar with FERPA.  Review FERPA and the Disclosure of Student Education Records (April 2016), and the Joint Guidance  on the Application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to Student Health Records (updated December 2019), for more information.