What Is Hipaa Compliance

The HIPAA compliance requires physicians, and anyone else in the healthcare industry to protect electronically stored PHI by using appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. This ensures the confidentiality and security of the information.

Violators of provisions in the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules can be financially penalized. Sometimes even something as drastic as criminal penalties can be implemented for severe neglect of HIPAA privacy.

Why Is Hipaa Important

Personal healthcare information is widely sought after by identity thieves, and as criminals develop new, evasive methods for stealing huge volumes of data, the healthcare industrys privacy and security safeguards have garnered considerable attention.

It is critical for healthcare practitioners to understand HIPAA since it established regulations that health institutions must follow or risk severe penalties.

• Inability to comprehend HIPAA regulations or willful violations of security procedures will result in significant penalties and forced structure rearrangement.
• Unknown Violation: $100 to $50,000 per record if the provider was unaware of the breach or could not have known about it.
• Reasonable Cause: $1,000 to $50,000 per record if the provider knew or reasonably should have known
• Willful Neglect: $10,000 to $50,000 per record if the provider acted willfully and promptly remedied the violation.
• Uncorrected Willful Neglect: Between $50,000 and $1.5 million if the provider acted willfully and failed to rectify the offence after 30 days.
• Each of these offences has a maximum annual penalty of $1.5 million.

Additionally, remember that HIPAA was created to increase the emphasis on security in healthcare and to keep patients safe. If avoiding a punishment is insufficient reason to safeguard your data, consider the people behind the statistics. The more precautions you take to safeguard your data, the safer your patients will be.

What Is The Importance Of Hipaa Compliance

HIPAA compliance regulations are critical. Failure to comply may jeopardise the security of patients health information. Breach may have a devastating effect on a businesss reputation, and you may face disciplinary action as well as harsh breach fines and penalties from CMS/OCR.

The Wannacry ransomware assault last year infected over 200,000 systems globally, including those of several healthcare organisations. Most notably, it impacted the United Kingdoms National Health Service, creating widespread interruptions in the delivery of health care.

Hackers gained access to the systems by exploiting vulnerabilities in out-of-date versions of Windows that are still widely utilised by a large number of healthcare institutions. With medical software vendors providing insufficient support for new operating systems and medical devices such as MRIs missing security safeguards, the assault was very simple to execute.

The attack highlighted the power of todays hackers, emphasising the extent to which out-of-date systems may cause problems in modern businesses. This is precisely why HIPAA governs some parts of information technology systems used to store, handle, and transfer healthcare data.

Recommended Reading: Eligibility For Aarp

Penalties Under The Hipaa Privacy Rule

Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, being a victim of a healthcare data breach or neglecting to provide patients with access to their protected health information may result in a fine from OCR.

Penalties for violating the privacy rule vary according on the gravity of the infringement. They are classified into four groups:

• Unintentional HIPAA breaches carry a fine of $100 per violation, with a maximum yearly penalty of $25,000 for multiple offences.
• A breach of HIPAA is punishable by a fine of $1,000 per infraction, with a maximum yearly fine of $100,000 for repeated offences.
• Willful disregard of HIPAA, although correction occurs within a certain time period, is $10,000 per violation, with a maximum yearly penalty of $250,000 for repeat violations.
• The penalty for willful disregard of HIPAA and failure to rectify the violation is $50,000 per violation, with a maximum yearly penalty of $1.5 million for repeat violations.
• Individuals and covered entities that knowingly access or disclose PHI in violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule face a fine of up to $50,000 and up to one year in jail. If the HIPAA Privacy Rule is broken fraudulently, the penalty can be enhanced to a $100,000 fine and up to ten years in jail.

While there is no formal HIPAA compliance certification programme, training providers provide certification credentials that demonstrate knowledge of the acts standards and requirements.

Purpose Of The Australian Privacy Act

The Australian Government is very serious about the safety and security of sensitive and personal patient data. As such, they have sought to implement layers of protective strategies into the system so that every company must follow these regulations. For example, the Act:

1. Ensures that every healthcare company, whether large or small, is bound to adhere to the rules and regulations set out in the Privacy Act of 1988. It is an enforceable legislation that the company cannot opt-out of, and which attracts a hefty fine of up to $2.1M if not followed.

2. Ensures that every healthcare company typically puts stringent procedures in place to avoid a penalty for failure to follow the Privacy Act.

3. Demands that the healthcare company seeks the patients consent before its representative collects any sensitive and personal information.

4. Covers all mediums of how patient data is secured and stored, whether physical or in the cloud. It also addresses the confidentiality of the patients health issues and any portion of data that could identify the customer, such as contact information, medical examination results, previous or ongoing prescriptions, minutes of patient-to-doctor conversations, Medicare number, and facility admission/discharge data.

Recommended Reading: Starbucks Insurance Enrollment

What Is The Purpose Of Hipaa

HIPAA, also known as Public Law 104-191, has two main purposes: to provide continuous health insurance coverage for workers who lose or change their job and to ultimately reduce the cost of healthcare by standardizing the electronic transmission of administrative and financial transactions. Other goals include combating abuse, fraud and waste in health insurance and healthcare delivery, and improving access to long-term care services and health insurance.

Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Protection Health Information

Proofpoint is dedicated to protecting our customers privacy. We understand that sometimes that protection extends to Personal Health Information . PHI held by covered entities is protected by the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Security Rule. Patients have rights under the Privacy Rule and under state law with respect to their PHI. The Security Rule requires that PHI be safeguarded to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI.

Disclosures of PHI are permitted for patient care and other important purposes, including treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. Examples of PHI include 18 data elements, including, but not limited to, the following: name, email address, social security numbers, medical record numbers, biometric identifiers, and phone numbers.

When customers engage Proofpoint as a vendor, it is possible that PHI belonging to our customers patients could pass through the Proofpoint Services when the customers use the Services. Proofpoint applies the minimum necessary concept required by HIPAA and only uses the minimum amount of information required to do our work. We also expect that our customers apply the same best practices when it comes to sharing of PHI.

The insights gained from the use of the Products and Services provided by Proofpoint are used to improve the Products and Services for all of Proofpoints customers. For the avoidance of doubt, such use does not include the sale or disclosure of a customers PHI.

Also Check: Kroger Part Time Health Insurance

Who Is Allowed To View A Patients Medical Information

You have a legal right to copies of your own medical records. A loved one or caregiver may have the right to get copies of your medical records, too, but you may have to provide written permission. Your health care providers have a right to see and share your records with anyone else to whom youve granted permission.

What Does The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Do

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a federal law that mandated the development of national standards to guard against the disclosure of sensitive patient health information without the patients consent or knowledge. To implement HIPAAs obligations, the US Department of Health and Human Services published the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The HIPAA Security Rule safeguards a portion of the data protected under the Privacy Rule.

Also Check: Do Part Time Starbucks Employees Get Benefits

What Are Hipaa Business Associates And Their Contract Requirements

HIPAA defines a BA as any organization or person working in association with or providing services to a covered entity who handles or discloses PHI or PHRs.

Under the HITECH Act, any HIPAA BA that serves a healthcare provider or institution is subject to audits by OCR within HHS and can be held accountable for a data breach and penalized for noncompliance.

According to the HHS, some examples of BAs include the following:

• when a health plan uses a third-party administrator to help with claims processing
• if a certified public accountant firm provides accounting services to a healthcare provider and has access to protected health information
• when a hospital has a consultant perform utilization reviews
• when a healthcare clearinghouse translates a claim from a nonstandard format to a standard format for a healthcare provider and then sends the process transaction to a payer
• when a physician uses an independent medical transcriptionist’s services
• when a pharmacy benefits manager manages a health plan’s pharmacist network and
• when a covered entity uses a cloud storage service to store PHI.

Mobile application developers could also be considered HIPAA BAs because many healthcare mobile applications handle PHI.

A HIPAA BA agreement is a contract between a HIPAA-covered entity and a HIPAA BA. The contract protects PHI in accordance with HIPAA guidelines.

According to HHS, HIPAA BA contracts or other written arrangements should do the following:

Continue Reading About HIPAA

What Are Health Care Components

The Board of Trustees has identified the University units or components having HIPAA compliance obligations. These units or components, referred to as health care components, are either University health care providers who transmit HIPAA protected information electronically or business associates performing services or functions involving HIPAA protected information for health care providers. The protected information is called protected health information or PHI. University employees, volunteers, trainees, students and other persons who work under the direct control of a University unit, who perform either health care or business associate functions within an identified health care component using PHI, are subject to the Privacy and Security Rules and the relevant University policy requirements, including training.

Also Check: Starbucks Health Insurance Eligibility

What Types Of Information Are Covered Under Hipaa

The HIPAA Privacy Rule safeguards any personally identifiable health information that a covered business or a BA maintains or transmits. This data can be stored in a variety of formats, including digital, paper, or oral.

PHI encompasses the following but is not limited to:

a patients name, address, birth date, Social Security number, biometric identifiers, or other personally identifiable information an individuals past, present, or future physical or mental health condition any care provided to an individual and information regarding the patients past, present, or future payment for care provided to the individual that identifies the patient or information fo

PHI excludes the following:

Employment records, including educational records, as well as other records covered by or defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and deidentified data, which is data that does not identify or provide information that could identify an individual its use and disclosure are unrestricted.Medical records, laboratory reports, and hospital bills are all instances of PHI because they contain identifiable information the patients name, for example connected with health data.

Blood pressure or heart rate data obtained by a consumer health device, such as a smartwatch, is not considered PHI since it is not shared with a covered organisation.

The History Of Hipaa And How It Came To Be

HIPAA was founded in 1996 when the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was signed into law. It was created to improve the portability and accountability of health insurance coverage for employees handling Protected Health Information . Other goals were to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and in health care delivery. Over time, HIPAA became a vehicle for encouraging the healthcare industry to digitize patient documents.

As HIPAA is a complex topic that covers many aspects, well break it down so its easier to understand.

Read Also: How To Qualify For Low Income Health Insurance

Title Ii: Administrative Simplification

This title directs the US Department of Health and Human Services to establish national standards to process electronic Healthcare transactions. It also requires health care providers and organizations to implement secure electronic Access to Health Data while also remaining in compliance with any privacy regulations set by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Its because of this title that we now have the ability to access our healthcare records online and send messages directly to our doctors.

Detailed Reporting And Tracking Features

Our data reporting and tracking features include:

• The monitoring of all modifications to PHI across file services to detect breaches.
• Track and monitor all changes to access rights and file server permissions to identify anomalies.
• Audit and report all data access to PHI to ensure that no unauthorized changes are taking place.
• Utilize customizable, built-in capabilities for alerts to regularly audit file/folder-related activities.
• Detect and respond to mass access with customizable, automated responses.

Don’t Miss: Does Starbucks Provide Health Insurance

Shown Here: Conference Report Filed In House

Title I: Health Care Access, Portability, and Renewability

Subtitle A: Group Market Rules

Subtitle B: Individual Market Rules

Subtitle C: General and Miscellaneous Provisions

Title II: Preventing Health Care Fraud and Abuse

Administrative Simplification Medical Liability Reform

Subtitle A: Fraud and Abuse Control Program

Subtitle B: Revisions to Current Sanctions for Fraud

and Abuse

Subtitle D: Civil Monetary Penalties

Subtitle E: Revisions to Criminal Law

Subtitle F: Administrative Simplification

Subtitle G: Duplication and Coordination of

Medicare-Related Plans

Title III: Tax-Related Health Provisions

Subtitle A: Medical Savings Accounts

Subtitle B: Increase in Deduction for Health Insurance

Costs of Self-Employed Individuals

Subtitle C: Long-Term Care Services and Contracts

Subtitle D: Treatment of Accelerated Death Benefits

Subtitle E: State Insurance Pools

Subtitle F: Organizations Subject to Section 833

Subtitle G: IRA Distributions to the Unemployed

Subtitle H: Organ and Tissue Donation Information

Included with Income Tax Refund Payments

Title IV: Application and Enforcement of Group Health Plan

Requirements

Subtitle A: Application and Enforcement of Group Health

Plan Requirements

Subtitle B: Clarification of Certain Continuation

Coverage Requirements

Subtitle A: Company-Owned Life Insurance

Subtitle B: Treatment of Individuals Who Lose United

States Citizenship

Subtitle C: Repeal of Financial Institution Transition

Rule to Interest Allocation Rules

What Steps Can I Take To Avoid Hipaa Violations

The best way to avoid violating HIPAA rules is to know how they apply to your organization. Health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers that electronically transmit health information are all affected.

• Encryption Services: Data encryption is a way to protect data by translating it into another form that can only be read by the person or computer with the encryption code.
• Employee Training: Train your employees every year on digital security and what your company policies are.
• Know the Laws: HIPAA, HITECH, & FACTA are three laws that require careful compliance.
• Cloud-Based Data Storage: Your data can be safer than ever using a cloud-based data storage service since begins with scanning your records into electronic health records.
• Electronic Health Records: Electronic health records make all your patients records compliant with HITECH and HIPAA.

You May Like: Does Starbucks Have Health Insurance

More About Fairfax County And Hipaa

The County classifies itself as a “hybrid entity a term that is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 164.103. The County is a covered entity whose business activities include both covered and non-covered functions.

Those components of the County performing covered functions or activities and those components performing functions or activities that would make them a business associate of a component that performs covered functions if the two components were separate legal entities shall be designated health care components and are required to implement the provisions of this procedural memorandum.

The assignment of agencies and programs within the Fairfax County HIPAA Hybrid Entity is subject to change based upon changes to regulation or to internal business processes.

HIPAA regulations directly cover 3 basic groups of individual or entities:

The Future Of The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act

In 2018, Bloomberg Law reported on the privacy risks that come from digital healthcare data and the likelihood of updated federal laws in the near future. In an age of fitness-tracking apps and GPS-tracked, shareable data on everything from an individuals daily step count to their average heart-rate, medications, allergies, and even menstrual cycles, there are new challenges for upholding standards in storing and protecting personal medical data.

In a video interview, Nan Halstead, health privacy and security attorney with Reed Smith LLP, said that future laws are unlikely to expand on HIPAA. Rather, they will use HIPAA’s framework as a model to create new laws governing the digital sector. Although no such federal laws have yet been passed, states can pass laws that fill the gap in the meantime. Moreover, companies tracking consumer data are currently also subject to supervision by regulating bodies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission .

Don’t Miss: Does Insurance Cover Baby Formula

Elements Of An Effective Hipaa Compliance Program

To ensure organizations have all the boxes ticked for HIPAA compliance, the office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services created a compliance training guide. The guide is referred to as The Seven Fundamental Elements of an Effective Compliance Program.

An auditor will use these criteria during investigations, and so as long as the organization is following the seven rules, theyll be in compliance.