Why is it that the media is allowed to announce if a celebrity is hospitalized and have it not be a HIPPA violation?

There are a few factors at play here.

First off, from a legal standpoint, HIPAA and similar laws only apply to healthcare providers themselves- they have a duty to respect and protect the privacy of their patients. If the information is released to a third party (e.g. with the patient's consent), then they have no obligation to keep it private. For instance, if you went to the doctor and told your friend about it, it isn't illegal for your friend to then tell other people about this- on the other hand, the doctor still cannot discuss your case with anyone else. It would be rather draconian for everyone to be subject to these laws and it would be widely open to abuse (e.g. if you told a friend about your medical history and then tried to accuse him or breaching your privacy later on).

So that's the first thing to consider- once a third party is made aware of someone's medical information, they are free to disclose this to anyone else.

Now it does happen that hospital staff may illegally disclose information to the media- this can be difficult to enforce, as the media themselves have legal protection against revealing their sources. The idea behind this is that whistleblowers or people with legitimate information the public should know about can safely disclose it to the media. I personally think disclosing someone's medical history is an abuse of this, but that's how the law currently stands.

On top of all of that, though, celebrities often voluntarily disclose the fact that they have been admitted to hospital. It is sometimes not easy to hide it in practice anyway- if a celebrity is seen being lifted into an ambulance and is not seen thereafter, it s rather obvious where they are. As such, many do voluntarily release this information. My hospital actually has a form you can fill out to authorize the hospital to disclose your case to the media.

The hospital employee is bound by HIPPA.

THe Media is exempt because of a thing called the Constitution.

THey talked about it in school, but you were probably out that day.

There is nothing more damaging to a politician's career prospects than upsetting media owners. Fortunately people are beginning to recognize how they are being manipulated by biased media reports. It will be a long time before the media are turned into a reliable source of unbiased information, but it will happen one day. However, until then we are stuck with Right-wing politics in a society which is destroying our world! If you vote conservative then the media have control over your mind.

The media is not subject to HIPPA and typically they report what the celebrity's press agent tells them.

When you are admitted to the hospital, you can elect to allow them to release information about your stay. Not specific medical treatment, just the fact that you are there. Most celebrities have publicists, and they are given permission to release that information.

Most importantly, HIPPA prevents the hospital from releasing information. It does not prevent the celebrity from releasing it and it does not prevent the media from releasing it.

Easy one, John. (And it's HIPAA; common error.) The media usually gets that information from "another source." If they get it from the hospital, they will give the source, and that probably means the celebrity allowed it to be released. You cannot stay a celeb without publicity, and even hospitalization is publicity. Good question.

In many cases the celebrity authorizes their manager, agent or publicist to release a statement to the media about their admission to hospital or their condition

Even if there is no consent, it's rarely hospital personnel who release this information. It's usually someone close to the celebrity - their driver, personal assistant, housekeeper, personal trainer, nanny, etc - who sells information about the celebrity to the media. For example in Kanye's case, it was his supposedly his personal trainer who apparently informed the media when he was admitted to the hospital for "exhaustion"

A celebrity has considerably fewer rights of privacy than a non-celebrity individual has. That is done because a celebrity is seeing a substantial benefit from being in a media spot light. That presumably deliberately puts the celebrity at unreasonably high risk in this regard so their protections are reduced.

Hippa laws apply to MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. THEY are prohibited from releasing information.

Media is not a medical person, therefore, they are not violating any laws.

All depends on where the information comes from. Take Carrie Fischer for example. She had a heart attack on a plane. So a bunch of people knew about it, and saw everything.