The Most Common HIPAA Violations, HCPs and Healthtech should be aware of.
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was enacted by the US government to not only protect patient confidentiality and privacy but also to ensure that doctors and other medical practices protect their data to prevent unauthorized persons and criminals from getting access to patients’ confidential, private and financial information. HIPAA violations are common but they are also extremely costly. Whether it was unintentional or due to a lack of proper compliance
The three components of HIPAA security rule compliance. Keeping patient data safe requires healthcare organizations to exercise best practices in three areas: administrative, physical security, and technical security. HIPAA violations applies to, the law refers to these as “covered entities” Health plans. Most health care providers, including doctors, clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, and pharmacies. HIPAA violations are expensive. The penalties for noncompliance are based on the level of negligence and can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation (or per record), with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per year for violations of an identical provision.
- 1) Lack of Encryption
- 2) Delayed breach notifications
- 3) Unauthorized Access
- 4) Loss or Theft of Devices
- 5) Sharing Information
- 6) Disposal of protected health information
- 7) Accessing protected health information from Unsecured Location.
Patient health records called PHI (Protected Health Information) are a valuable commodity for criminals and sell for high prices in the black market. Medical professionals must therefore strictly abide by HIPAA rules in order to avoid monetary fines, damage to their reputation, loss of their license(s), and even imprisonment. Patients’ digital medical records are 50 times more valuable than financial information, according to cybersecurity experts. And the AMA believes that keeping the patient at the center of care requires steadfast adherence to their rights to privacy.
Physicians and private practices are alleged to be the second-most common violator of HIPAA privacy regulations, coming in behind hospitals and ahead of outpatient facilities, pharmacies and health plans, the OCR says.
