Medical Record Scanning Services : Hipaa Verification, HIPAA Violations
Keeping up with HIPAA regulations is important for any healthcare organization. Failure to comply with HIPAA regulations can end up being a substantially costly affair-ranging from $150 to over $4 million.
The truth is that complying with HIPAA is not an easy job as the regulations are changing constantly and it is really important to stay up-to-date all the time to avoid any potential monetary fine related to HIPAA.
Now, let us discuss about some major HIPAA regulations violation examples but before that, you should know what a HIPAA violation is-
What is HIPAA Violations?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability, or HIPAA violation occurs when the vulnerable Patient Health Information (PHI) is accessed, used, or disclosed by an unauthorized body, thus resulting in a substantial personal risk to the patient.
The regulations include everyone that works with the Patient Health Information-
- Health plans,
- Healthcare organizations,
- Healthcare providers who deal with information in electronic form,
- Medicare prescription drug card sponsor,
- Business associates that work with PHI.
Costs of HIPAA Violence:
What is Civil HIPAA Penalty?
The civil penalty is given to the individual who has violated HIPAA regulations unknowingly.
In such scenarios, penalties are-
$100 per violation if the person doesn’t even know that he has violated HIPAA regulations
If the person had reasonable cause for their action, they are charged with a minimum of $1,000
If the person was acting with intentional neglect and later on, fixed the issue, they will be charged with a minimum of $10,000 per violation
If the individual was acting with willful neglect and didn’t fix the issue, later on, they will be charged a minimum of $50,000 per violation.
Criminal HIPAA Penalty:
If an individual commits a violation and does it with malicious intent, that person will be charged with a criminal penalty.
- If a person knowingly obtains and discloses PHI, they can be penalized with up to $50, 000 and jailed for up to a year
- If someone commits a violation under pretense, they can be fined up to $100,000 and up to five years of jail
- HIPAA violation for personal gain can lead to the fine amount up to $250,000 and jail up to ten years
The most common HIPAA violation examples-
- Having no or lack of encryption
2. Getting PHI information hacked or phished
3. Unauthorized access to the PHI
4. Loss or theft of devices that contain PHI
5. Sharing PHI
6. Disposal of PHI
7. Accessing PHI from unsecured locations
How to report HIPAA violations?
When it comes to filing a HIPAA violation complaint, whether it’s a paper document or electronic document, you should file the complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), an organization within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
You can file the complaint via fax, mail or email.
How to stay away from HIPAA violations with medical record scanning?
ARC provides expert consultation, compliant conversion centers for your paper and digital documents, and a secure cloud environment to manage all of your data that contains PHI, PII and other HIPAA-regulated information.
ARC is the most trusted partner that you can completely trust on-
ARC has highly secured service centers across the US. Each center is secured with card access, the sign-in system for visitors, 24*7 video monitoring and a protected record vault.
All your images and data are encrypted so that only authorized people can access your information.
Audited workflows, trained staff and vetted technology deliver a turnkey solution to help you meet your HIPAA requirements.
