Agent skill

Hipaa Minimum Necessary

by mukul975 in mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills

Implements HIPAA minimum necessary standard under 45 CFR §164.502(b).

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedLegal & Compliance

Install Hipaa Minimum Necessary

skills CLI
$ npx skills add mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills --skill hipaa-minimum-necessary -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills hipaa-minimum-necessary --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/privacy/hipaa-minimum-necessary .claude/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
hipaa-minimum-necessary
GitHub stars
297
Token cost
~3.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,535 words
Files
5 (incl. scripts, references, assets)
Skills in repo
280
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Implements HIPAA minimum necessary standard under 45 CFR §164.502(b).

  • Works in 3 steps: Identify the workforce members or… → Identify the categories of PHI each… → Make reasonable efforts to limit access…
  • Tasks that involve Healthcare and finance regulation
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Regulatory Framework, Implementation Requirements —… and HITECH Act §13405(b) —…, plus 4 more sections
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder

What it does

Hipaa Minimum Necessary is an agent skill from mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills. Implements HIPAA minimum necessary standard under 45 CFR §164.502(b). Covers role-based access policies per workforce member category, routine vs non-routine disclosure protocols, reasonable reliance doctrine, documentation requirements, and HITECH amendments. Keywords: minimum necessary, role-based access, workforce, routine disclosure, HIPAA.

Its SKILL.md is about 3.3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 7 other files, including scripts, reference files and assets (for example `assets/template.md`, `references/standards.md` and `references/workflows.md`).

It sits in Legal & Compliance, covering Healthcare and finance regulation. The repository describes itself as: 282+ structured privacy & data protection skills for AI agents. GDPR, CCPA, EU AI Act, HIPAA, LGPD, PIPL, DPDP Act. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Healthcare and finance regulation

Example prompts

  • “Use the hipaa-minimum-necessary skill to implement HIPAA minimum necessary standard under 45 CFR §164.502(b)”
  • “/hipaa-minimum-necessary”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Identify the workforce members or classes of workforce members who need access to PHI to carry out their duties
  2. Identify the categories of PHI each class of workforce members needs access to
  3. Make reasonable efforts to limit access to only the PHI identified as needed

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9b2ef9e. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Hipaa Minimum Necessary loads about 3.3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.4k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 93 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,535 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~93
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.3k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~4.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills at commit 9b2ef9e, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© mukul975). 1,535 words, ~3,257 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 4 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
hipaa-minimum-necessary
description
Implements HIPAA minimum necessary standard under 45 CFR §164.502(b). Covers role-based access policies per workforce member category, routine vs non-routine disclosure protocols, reasonable reliance doctrine, documentation requirements, and HITECH amendments. Keywords: minimum necessary, role-based access, workforce, routine disclosure, HIPAA.
license
Apache-2.0
metadata.author
mukul975
metadata.version
1.0
metadata.domain
privacy
metadata.subdomain
healthcare-privacy
metadata.tags
hipaa, minimum-necessary, role-based-access, workforce, routine-disclosure, phi-limitation

HIPAA Minimum Necessary Standard — 45 CFR §164.502(b)

Overview

The minimum necessary standard is a core principle of the HIPAA Privacy Rule requiring covered entities to make reasonable efforts to limit protected health information to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure, or request. Codified at 45 CFR §164.502(b) and elaborated in §164.514(d), this standard affects every PHI handling decision within a covered entity's operations. The HITECH Act §13405(b) directed HHS to issue guidance on defining "minimum necessary" with greater specificity, and while HHS has not issued a final rule on this provision, OCR has consistently enforced the standard through settlements and corrective action plans.

Regulatory Framework

Statutory and Regulatory Basis
  • 45 CFR §164.502(b)(1): "When using or disclosing protected health information or when requesting protected health information from another covered entity or business associate, a covered entity or business associate must make reasonable efforts to limit protected health information to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose of the use, disclosure, or request."
  • 45 CFR §164.514(d): Implementation specifications for the minimum necessary standard
  • HITECH Act §13405(b): Required HHS to issue guidance defining minimum necessary; pending final rule, the standard is applied as a reasonableness standard
Exceptions to Minimum Necessary — §164.502(b)(2)

The minimum necessary standard does NOT apply to:

ExceptionRationale
Disclosures to or requests by a healthcare provider for treatmentTreatment requires full clinical picture; limiting information could compromise patient safety
Uses or disclosures to the individual who is the subject of the PHIIndividuals have a right to their complete information
Uses or disclosures pursuant to a valid authorization under §164.508The individual has specifically authorized the scope of disclosure
Disclosures to HHS for compliance investigation/enforcementHHS needs access to determine compliance
Uses or disclosures required by lawLegal mandate supersedes minimum necessary limitation
Uses or disclosures required for HIPAA Administrative Simplification complianceStandard transactions require specified data elements

Implementation Requirements — §164.514(d)

Uses of PHI by Workforce — §164.514(d)(2)

For internal uses of PHI, the covered entity must:

  1. Identify the workforce members or classes of workforce members who need access to PHI to carry out their duties
  2. Identify the categories of PHI each class of workforce members needs access to
  3. Make reasonable efforts to limit access to only the PHI identified as needed

Asclepius Health Network Role-Based Access Matrix:

Workforce RolePHI Access CategoriesAccess ScopeEHR Access Level
Attending PhysicianFull clinical record of assigned patientsCurrent and historical encountersFull read/write on assigned patients; read-only on others via break-the-glass
Consulting SpecialistClinical record relevant to consultationCurrent encounter, relevant historyRead-only on referred patients for relevant clinical domains
Registered Nurse (Inpatient)Nursing assessments, vital signs, medication administration, care plans, physician ordersCurrent admission on assigned unitRead/write for assigned patients on unit; read-only for transferred patients for continuity
Emergency Department NurseFull clinical record of ED patientsCurrent ED encounterFull read/write for ED patients; access terminates at discharge/transfer
PharmacistMedication orders, allergies, diagnoses relevant to drug therapy, renal/hepatic functionCurrent and recent encountersRead medication-related clinical data; write medication verification/dispensing
Medical CoderDiagnoses, procedures, operative notes, discharge summariesPost-discharge recordsRead-only for coding-relevant documentation
Billing SpecialistDemographics, insurance information, diagnosis codes, procedure codes, dates of serviceBilled encountersNo access to clinical notes; demographics and billing codes only
Registration ClerkDemographics, insurance information, emergency contactsRegistration screen onlyRead/write limited to demographic and insurance fields
Quality Improvement AnalystAggregate clinical data, de-identified data, limited datasets per DUAPopulation-level reportsLimited dataset access with data use agreement; no individual record access without specific justification
IT Support StaffSystem administration — may access ePHI incidentally during troubleshootingAs needed for technical supportLogged access during active support ticket; no browsing; all access audited
Executive LeadershipSummary reports, aggregate statisticsDe-identified or aggregateDashboard access only; no individual patient record access
Legal CounselPHI related to active litigation or compliance investigationSpecific records per legal holdAccess granted per matter with Privacy Office authorization
Routine and Recurring Disclosures — §164.514(d)(3)(i)

For routine, recurring disclosures, the covered entity must implement policies and procedures that limit the PHI disclosed to the amount reasonably necessary to achieve the purpose:

Asclepius Health Network Routine Disclosure Protocols:

Routine Disclosure TypeStandard PHI SetExcluded PHI
Insurance eligibility verificationPatient name, DOB, insurance ID, service dateClinical information, diagnoses, SSN
Referral to external providerRelevant clinical summary, current medications, allergies, reason for referralUnrelated historical diagnoses, substance abuse records (42 CFR Part 2), psychotherapy notes
Workers' compensation claimWork-related injury/illness records, treatment for that conditionUnrelated medical history
Pre-authorization requestProposed procedure, clinical justification, relevant diagnostic resultsComplete medical record
Public health reportingRequired data elements per reporting jurisdiction statuteAdditional clinical detail beyond reportable elements
Subpoena response (with qualified protective order)Records specified in the subpoena/court orderRecords beyond the scope of the order
Non-Routine Disclosures — §164.514(d)(3)(ii)

For non-routine disclosures, the covered entity must:

  1. Develop criteria to limit PHI to the minimum necessary for the particular disclosure
  2. Review each request on a case-by-case basis against the criteria

Asclepius Health Network Non-Routine Disclosure Process:

  1. All non-routine PHI requests are routed to the Health Information Management (HIM) department
  2. HIM specialist reviews the request against the purpose stated
  3. If the purpose is unclear or the request scope appears broader than necessary, HIM contacts the requestor for clarification
  4. Privacy Officer review is required for requests involving: psychotherapy notes, substance abuse records, HIV/STI records, records of minors, requests from law enforcement without a warrant, and any request affecting more than 50 individuals
  5. Only the PHI elements necessary for the stated purpose are disclosed
  6. The disclosure is logged with the scope justification for accounting of disclosures
Show full SKILL.md (586 more words)Show less
Disclosures to Other Covered Entities — Reasonable Reliance §164.514(d)(3)(iii)

A covered entity may rely on a request from another covered entity or business associate as meeting minimum necessary if:

Requestor TypeReasonable Reliance Permitted When
Public officialRequest states PHI is the minimum necessary for the stated purpose (§164.514(d)(3)(iii)(A))
Another covered entityRequest is for PHI the requestor needs (§164.514(d)(3)(iii)(B))
Professional member of the workforce of the CE or BARepresents that PHI requested is the minimum necessary for the stated purpose (§164.514(d)(3)(iii)(C))
Research with IRB/Privacy Board waiverWaiver documentation represents PHI is the minimum necessary for the research (§164.514(d)(3)(iii)(D))

Reasonable reliance does not eliminate the disclosing entity's obligation; it shifts the burden of determining minimum necessary to the requestor in specified circumstances.

HITECH Act §13405(b) — Enhanced Minimum Necessary

HITECH §13405(b) added two provisions:

  1. Limited dataset standard: Until HHS issues final guidance, if a covered entity is required to comply with the minimum necessary standard and determines that a limited dataset (§164.514(e)) would accomplish the purpose, the minimum necessary standard is met by providing the limited dataset
  2. Future guidance: HHS was directed to issue regulations that further restrict minimum necessary to limit information to the minimum necessary for the stated purpose — this final rule remains pending

Documentation Requirements

Covered entities must document and maintain:

  1. Policies and procedures implementing the minimum necessary standard (§164.530(i))
  2. Role-based access definitions identifying PHI categories by workforce class (§164.514(d)(2))
  3. Routine disclosure protocols specifying standard PHI sets (§164.514(d)(3)(i))
  4. Non-routine review criteria and case-by-case determination records (§164.514(d)(3)(ii))
  5. Training materials covering minimum necessary for all workforce members
  6. Sanction records for workforce members who violate minimum necessary policies

All documentation must be retained for 6 years from creation or last effective date under §164.530(j).

Common Minimum Necessary Violations

Violation PatternExampleRemediation
Granting full record access by defaultAll nurses have access to all patient records across all departmentsImplement unit-based access restrictions; require break-the-glass for cross-department access
Sending entire medical record in response to limited requestAttorney requests records related to knee surgery; HIM sends complete chartTrain HIM on request scope analysis; implement disclosure review checklist
Overly broad role definitions"Clinician" role grants same access to physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and techniciansGranular role definitions aligned with job function; separate access profiles per clinical role
No logging of access for minimum necessary auditingUnable to determine if workforce members are accessing only patients in their careImplement access audit reports comparing records accessed to assigned patients
Faxing full face sheets with all demographics for limited purposeRegistration faxes complete demographic page to pharmacy for prescription verificationCreate limited forms with only necessary fields per transaction type

Enforcement Actions

  • Memorial Hermann Health System (2017): $2.4 million — disclosed a patient's PHI (name linked to involvement in a vehicular incident) in a press release, exceeding minimum necessary
  • Cignet Health (2011): $4.3 million (CMP) — although primarily for denial of access rights, OCR noted systemic failure to implement minimum necessary policies
  • CVS Pharmacy (2009): $2.25 million — improper disposal of PHI in dumpsters reflected failure to implement minimum necessary in disposal processes

Integration Points

  • hipaa-privacy-rule: Minimum necessary is a core Privacy Rule requirement affecting all uses and disclosures
  • hipaa-security-rule: Technical access controls (§164.312(a)) implement minimum necessary through role-based ePHI access
  • hipaa-baa-management: BAAs must limit BA access to minimum necessary PHI for contracted services
  • hipaa-deidentification: De-identification and limited datasets serve as minimum necessary tools for research and analytics
  • 42-cfr-part-2: Substance abuse records have their own consent-based minimum necessary requirements that are stricter than HIPAA

© mukul975, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 4 other files (scripts, references, assets) in skills/privacy/hipaa-minimum-necessary of mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • assets/template.md
  • references/standards.md
  • references/workflows.md
  • scripts/process.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9b2ef9e

Compare with similar skills

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Hipaa Minimum Necessary compared with similar skills
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HIPAA Pre-Deployment Compliance Checkmaziyarpanahi/openmed5.5k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Hipaa ComplianceSushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance9431 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
ISO Standards Readiness EvidenceK-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills48k1 repos~4.6kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
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Questions about Hipaa Minimum Necessary

What does Hipaa Minimum Necessary do?

Implements HIPAA minimum necessary standard under 45 CFR §164.502(b). Hipaa Minimum Necessary is an agent skill from mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills.502(b).

When should I use Hipaa Minimum Necessary?

Hipaa Minimum Necessary fits situations like: tasks that involve Healthcare and finance regulation.

How do I install Hipaa Minimum Necessary in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills --skill hipaa-minimum-necessary -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/privacy/hipaa-minimum-necessary in mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills) into .claude/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Hipaa Minimum Necessary in Codex?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills --skill hipaa-minimum-necessary -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/privacy/hipaa-minimum-necessary in mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills) into .agents/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Hipaa Minimum Necessary in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills --skill hipaa-minimum-necessary -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary, .gemini/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary, .github/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary and .opencode/skills/hipaa-minimum-necessary in your project.

What does Hipaa Minimum Necessary need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Hipaa Minimum Necessary needs Python for the scripts in its folder. Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Hipaa Minimum Necessary access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Hipaa Minimum Necessary safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does Hipaa Minimum Necessary use?

Hipaa Minimum Necessary is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Hipaa Minimum Necessary use?

About 3.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 13k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.2k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Hipaa Minimum Necessary?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Hipaa Minimum Necessary: HIPAA Safe Harbor Coverage Audit (maziyarpanahi/openmed, 5.5k stars), HIPAA Pre-Deployment Compliance Check (maziyarpanahi/openmed, 5.5k stars), Hipaa Compliance (Sushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance, 943 stars) and ISO Standards Readiness Evidence (K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills, 48k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Hipaa Minimum Necessary?

mukul975 (a GitHub user) maintains it in mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills, which has 297 GitHub stars. The repository holds 280 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on March 16, 2026.

Source: mukul975/Privacy-Data-Protection-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.