It’s ridiculous to pretend the Federal government is going to prosecute the hospital where the POTUS was born for confirming that he was born there (IF he was born there). This isn’t about employees snooping in files or inadvertently or maliciously releasing sensitive information. Plus, if Obama wasn’t born there, no part of the law prevents them from saying so.
It is illegal to release any information, including the fact that was someone was a patient. May sound crazy, but that's the way HIPAA was written. It's illegal, and people have been fired, fined or imprisoned in a few cases just for looking at records that they had no reason to look at. You may want to look at this article on the matter from WND.
The confirmation that an individual was a patient or was not a patient is indeed covered by the statute," said Helen Oscislawski, a Princeton, N.J., attorney who represents hospitals.