How To Avoid HIPAA Penalties And Fines: How Lack Of Just One Thing Punished A Covered Entity

The basic provisions of privacy for protected health information are well known, but their application in today’s world of electronic and personal communication devices is complex.  On-going training and education of the health care workforce is a necessary requirement to comply with HIPAA. That on-going training and education involves the performance and completion of a Risk Assessment under HIPAA rules in order to gauge and evaluate the vulnerability to HIPAA violations of any given health care covered entity. Performing a proper Risk Assessment will hopefully uncover vulnerabilities that the covered entity will correct.  But what if there is a breach, nonetheless?  What can be done or shown to demonstrate one’s good-faith efforts to comply?

Erase the fear, uncertainty, and doubt about exactly how a health care practitioner as a covered entity can mitigates fines and sanctions applicable to a HIPAA violation and breach of protected health information. Learn the basic structure of penalties for HIPAA violations including the complicated, subjective HIPAA violation penalty tiers, Tiers 1 to 4.  Review a summary of criminal penalties that can arise out of a HIPAA violation, too.  Analyze common HIPAA violations and see how intent and preparation either help or harm your case.

Find out how the failure to do just that one thing may cost a covered entity dearly in a $650,000 administrative fine case where the lack of one component was a specific factor in assessing such harsh sanctions.

In addition, discover how best to avoid HIPAA violations in the first place with a Top Five Takeaways that will mitigate the sanctions applied in the event a violation occurs.