What counts as a HIPAA violation - WheelHouse IT 2890 West State Rd 84 Suite 108 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 (954) 474-2204

What counts as a HIPAA violation

Following HIPAA guidelines is a legal and precautionary measure that needs to be done religiously by all the offices that are related to medicine and has access to the patient's medical records. This is done to respect and protect an individual's medical conditions. Failure to comply with the HIPAA regulations which are known as HIPAA violations can not only bring disrepute to the name of the company which has violated the HIPAA guidelines but can also cause legal punishment to the company which could be financial and that could range over $100 to over $4 million.

Compilation with the HIPAA guidelines is not an easy task to follow. The HIPAA regulations are updated constantly, therefore, medical professionals and other vendors who are related to the medical industry need to be up-to-date all the time so that they do not accidentally end up violating the HIPAA rules and then have to rack up millions of dollars as fine. As a result, to keep yourself updated on the HIPAA guidelines in this article, we will discuss a few examples of what counts as HIPAA regulations. Before that let us know what PHI includes.

List of documentation that could be listed as PHI

The HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and violations of the action happen when the medical records are accessed, used, or disclosed in a way that the personal life of the patient is significantly compromised. The list of items that are included as a part of PHI includes

●    Health Plans
●    Clearing Houses that process the insurance claims.
●    The providers who submit claims through electronic mediums.
●    Drug card sponsors who work with Medicare prescriptions.
●    Third-party vendors like medical associates who deal with protected medical records like medical insurance companies.

Wondering What counts as a HIPAA violation? The HIPAA regulations include all these things and violations in securing and protecting any of these things that might result in HIPAA violations. 

Instances that can be considered as HIPAA violations

●    Firstly, a lack of encryption of the medical documents might lead to HIPAA violations. Encryption adds an additional level of cybersecurity to the data that is stored in the system.

●    If your website gets hacked and your cybersecurity is breached, that is another instance when HIPAA is violated. To ensure that your website is never hacked you need to make sure that all your anti-virus software is always up-to-date.

Another way of avoiding HIPAA violations is not to let the employees access the data that they do not need in their daily business operations.