The Datamax Thinking Blog

What we also hear is that not everyone is entirely clear on the ramifications of HIPAA non-compliance. 

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) established significant requirements to safeguard the health information of patients.  These requirements dictate the when, how, and with whom as it relates to the sharing of Protected Health Information (PHI).

Based on what we see and hear in the Document Management and Document Workflow arena, Healthcare Providers are quite focused on the application of HIPAA guidelines within their practices and clinics today.  That's good!  In our conversations, they consistently express interest in how technology can better equip, guide, and protect them within their operational workflows and technology infrastructure—all areas we can address.

What we also hear, is not everyone it entirely clear on the ramifications of HIPAA non-compliance. 

The following provides a brief snapshot of information from the HIPAA Journal and reinforces why Healthcare Providers CANNOT be flippant regarding HIPAA (and HITECH) compliance.

HIPAA Violation Categories:

The four categories used for the penalty structure are as follows:

• Category 1: A violation which the CE was unaware of and could not have realistically avoided, had a reasonable amount of care had been taken to abide by HIPAA Rules
• Category 2: A violation that the CE should have been aware of but could not have avoided even with a reasonable amount of care. (but falling short of willful neglect of HIPAA Rules)
• Category 3: A violation suffered as a direct result of “willful neglect” of HIPAA Rules, in cases where an attempt has been made to correct the violation
• Category 4: A violation of HIPAA Rules constituting willful neglect, where no attempt has been made to correct the violation

HIPAA Violation Penalties:

• Category 1: Minimum fine of $100 per violation up to $50,000
• Category 2: Minimum fine of $1,000 per violation up to $50,000
• Category 3: Minimum fine of $10,000 per violation up to $50,000
• Category 4: Minimum fine of $50,000 per violation

HIPAA Violation Criminal Penalties:

The tiers for Criminal HIPAA penalties are:

• Tier 1:   Reasonable cause or no knowledge of violation – Up to 1 year in jail
• Tier 2:   Obtaining PHI under false pretenses – Up to 5 years in jail
• Tier 3:   Obtaining PHI for personal gain or with malicious intent – Up to 10 years in jail

HIPAA Solutions:

Datamax delivers a variety of Document Workflow and Document Management solutions and services to help organizations comply with the many regulatory requirements established by HIPAA and HITECH, especially given the most recent Final Rule governing privacy and security.

Our capabilities will allow you to faithfully:

• manage sensitive patient records through authentication, encryption, and other solutions addressing HIPAA-mandated requirements,
• monitor access, use, and distribution of documents to minimize exposure to costly and damaging data breaches, and
• safeguard PHI on MFP devices (Multifunction Printers) with hard drive encryption, timed data deletion, and network security settings.

Could your Healthcare organization use additional assistance or better focus with tightening up workflow, information security, and regulatory compliance? We would love to vist!

¹Source: More details on HIPAA Violations can be found at:  http://www.hipaajournal.com/what-are-the-penalties-for-hipaa-violations-7096/