U.S. Department of Labor The U.S. Department of Labor website http://www.dol.gov/ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website http://www.hhs.gov/ National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) The NICHD is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the federal government’s major medical research agency. http://www.nichd.nih.gov/default.htm Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA, Title II) required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health plans, and employers. As the industry has implemented these standards, and increased the use of electronic data interchange, the nation's health care system will become increasingly effective and efficient. . http://www.cms.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/