HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)
HIPAA is a federal law supported by regulation which establishes a minimum level of confidentiality for all healthcare related personal health information. It provides that all personal health information derived from the healthcare provider (everything from a neurologist to a podiatrist – from your head to your toes) is confidential. HIPAA also provides for standards of maintaining and protecting personal health information from disclosure. The office of the United States Department of Health and Human Services administers HIPAA and has an enforcement arm which investigates, rules upon, and often finds non-compliant healthcare providers.
The rules with regard to confidentiality required by HIPAA are, for the most part, significantly less restrictive then the rules regarding mental health confidentiality in Illinois.
HIPAA requires that if state law is more restrictive then the federal, HIPAA law, then, you must comply with the more restrictive of the two.
Therefore, a release that may be valid under HIPAA, may not be valid under Illinois law.