What is the Violation of HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) 1996 is a Congress Act of the United States by President Bill Clinton. This act is for health care centers and their providers to secure the Privacy of patient records and health information.
HIPAA Violations happen when Protected Health Information (PHI) comes into the wrong hands. It results in a significant personal risk to the patient’s Privacy. These are the principal regulations that are responsible for the leakage of PHI of the patient;
- Health care institutes
- Health care clearinghouses
- Health care providers who transmit data online
- Healthcare prescription drug card sponsors
- Business associates that include PHI
HIPAA violation results in civil and criminal penalties. For the violation of HIPAA, the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigates PHI complaints. These are the same violations of HIPAA.
Civil Violations
Civil violations happen if the individuals commit the breach without any malicious intent. They are neglectful or unaware of the rules of HIPAA privacy.
The penalties for such a case are as follows:
- If the person is unaware that they were committing a HIPAA violation, they have to pay $100 per violation.
- If the person has important reasons for their actions and failure to comply with HIPAA, so they have to pay a fine of $1,000.
- If the person was dealing with willful neglect, and if they fix the issue, so they have to pay a fine of $10,000 per violation.
- If the person is coping with willful neglect and cannot resolve the issue, they have to pay a fine of $50,000 per violation.
Criminal Violations;
Criminal Violations happen if the individuals commit the violation with malicious intent. They neglect the rules of HIPAA privacy, which leads to criminal penalties.
The penalties in such cases are as follow;
- If the person discloses PHI with full intent, they have to pay $50,000 with one-year imprisonment.
- If the person commits violations under pretenses, they have to pay a fine of $100,000 with five years imprisonment.
- If the person violates the rules of HIPPA for personal use (i.e., sells PHI or uses it to play with the patient’s life), they have to pay a fine of $250,000 with ten years imprisonment.
What is a PHI Violation?
HIPAA violations are even common than using PHI’s unauthorized disclosure and disclosures to include HIPAA.
PHI provides more information by exposing the PHI to thousands of patients, from providing minimal information to achieving the purpose of hacking a non-encrypted database.
To reduce PHI violations, “Covered Entities” and “Business Associates” need to implement the safety of, Privacy, and security rules and appropriate policies and procedures.
These can help to reduce the risk of a PHI violation. All the members of each organization’s workforce need proper training to act on the policies, procedures, and non -compliance.
What are the main categories of HIPAA Violation?
There are four main categories of HIPAA violations. All types have a minimum and maximum “limit” within which OCR can impose financial penalties.
Two of the HIPAA violation categories has designed for Covered Entities and Business Associates that can disclose reasonable due diligence. On the other hand, two categories are for entities guilty of willful neglect.
Type 1: We can relate it with an unawareness of the HIPAA violation and by exercising reasonable due diligence.
Type 2: By exercising reasonable due diligence, we can relate it with appropriate actions that the Covered Entity/Business Associate knows or should have known about the violation.
Type 3: We can relate it with willful neglecting of the HIPAA Rules with the chances of correction of violation within thirty days of discovery.
Type 4: We can relate it with willfully neglecting the HIPAA Rules without any chance of correction of violation within thirty days of discovery.
Other Types of HIPAA Law Violation
HIPAA violation categories only when it involves authorization uses and disclosures of PHI. However, many other paths by which a Covered Entity or Business Associate can violate HIPAA rules. For example, if the organization cannot regulate proper training of members of the workforce on policies and procedures or fails training documents.
Details of violations of those affected by breaches, HHS office for civil rights, and in specific conditions, it is also a violation of a HIPAA law from the media.
In recent years, numerous penalties charged on law violations do not comply with the violation notification role or fail to adhere to this principle at the time of permission.
Final words;
HIPAA Violations happen when Protected Health Information (PHI) comes into the wrong hands. It results in a significant personal risk to the patient’s Privacy, and criminals will charge a fine for this act.
