HIPAA was passed by Congress in 1996. Since that date substantial resources have been expended by Federal Agencies attempting to appropriately address the issues of the Act. Currently three areas of HIPAA have published compliance dates.

Standard Transaction Sets have a compliance date of October 16th, 2003, if the Covered Entity applies for an Extension before October 15th, 2002. (If you are a medical practitioner there is a 99% chance you are a Covered Entity and therefore must comply with HIPAA.)

Privacy rules have a compliance date of April 14th, 2003. Depending on the size and nature of your medical practice, HIPAA will affect you to different degrees.
The National Employer ID has a compliance date of July 30, 2004.

The next area of HIPAA to be given a compliance date will be the Security regulations. These regulations are expected to be published in fall 2002, with a compliance date of fall 2004.

It is important to become knowledgeable about HIPAA. Numerous web sites cover both the history of HIPAA as well as instructions to compliancy on the three portions of HIPAA currently under implementation.

The links below should prove to be an excellent starting point.

CMS HIPAA Information
Common Sense HIPAA Solutions
Strategic National Implementation Process
Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange