California HIPAA Release and Authorization is a document that allows a patient to give consent for their health care providers to release their protected health information (PHI) to other parties. This document must be signed by the patient or the patient's legal representative in order to become valid. The California HIPAA Release and Authorization is used to fulfill the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which requires that any PHI released to another party must be done so with the patient's written permission. There are two types of California HIPAA Release and Authorization documents: general and specific. A general release allows a patient to give blanket permission to release any PHI to any party, while a specific release requires that the patient specify exactly what information can be released, to whom, and for what purpose. The document must be signed and dated by the patient or their legal representative and should include the patient's name, date of birth, and address.