Which agency is NOT required to comply with HIPAA?

The correct answer is that insurance brokers are not required to comply with HIPAA. This is primarily because HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) applies specifically to covered entities. Covered entities are those that handle protected health information (PHI) in specific capacities, such as healthcare providers who transmit any health information in electronic form, health plans that pay for medical care, and healthcare clearinghouses that facilitate the processing of health information.

Insurance brokers, on the other hand, act as intermediaries between consumers and health insurance plans but do not directly handle or process health records in a way that would categorize them as covered entities under HIPAA. They may use protected health information to help clients find appropriate insurance plans, but they do not create, receive, maintain, or transmit health information in the ways defined by HIPAA compliance requirements. Therefore, they do not have the same obligations to safeguard PHI as the covered entities do.