Jay P. Anstine (janstine@bluebirdhealthlaw.com) is the President of Bluebird Healthlaw Partners in Fort Collins, CO.

April 14, 2003. Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the HIPAA Privacy Rule went into effect. Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague, joking about the days before HIPAA. I recalled a time growing up when the father of a close friend was a physician. I can vividly recall having dinner at their house and seeing stacks of charts sitting on the edge of the table, waiting to be dictated after dinner. A practice now so foreign to us, it’d be appalling by today’s standards — completely normal back then.