Business Risks of Ignoring HIPAA Best Practices

HIPAA SECURITY BEST PRACTICES MUST BE CONSTANTLY UPDATED
THE IMPORTANCE OF A HIPAA IT CHECKLIST

HIPAA Data on Unsecured Websites Can Cripple Businesses

The violation of HIPAA website guidelines can be costly. HIPAA fines per record can be steep; the consequences of noncompliance can lead to penalties starting from $100 to $50,000, which varies according to the level of negligence. You may also have to pay the maximum penalty of $1.5 million per year to violate an identical requirement or a record. Moreover, the situation can become more threatening if violations fall in the category of criminal charges, which can result in sending the accuser to jail. HIPAA compliant website violations that include the breach of the HIPAA privacy rule that can cost your practice. However, the federal fines for noncompliance are dependent upon the level of apparent carelessness present within your company during the time of the HIPAA violation. These charges and penalties can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation (or per record), with an all-out penalty of $1.5 million per year for an individual violation. You can have a look below at our HIPAA fines chart for the complete list of HIPAA fines.

HIPAA Compliant Solution - Medical Development

Keep in mind that the number of fines will increase with the number of patients and negligence. There could be an occurrence of not knowing about a breach, and you exercise reasonable diligence without knowing that you have violated a provision. Moreover, on the other hand, if the spectrum where a breach is caused by negligence and not altered in 30 days, the penalties and fines are divided into two main types that are reasonable cause and intentional negligence. In this article, there would be a discussion on the HIPAA compliant application development and websites to ensure data security and prevent all sorts of breaches.

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Keep Your Company Safe

HIPAA web requirements are always changing, which is why it's so important to choose a partner that has extensive experience with secure websites and portals. Clarity is here to help keep your EMR/EHR safe.

 
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Mastering HIPAA Complexity for Medical Websites, Apps, and Portals

Check out our free 45-minute workshop where you’ll discover a simple, step-by-step gameplan to master risk, complexity, and profit for your HIPAA-compliant digital platform... without wasting months or years becoming a HIPAA expert!

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KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO ENSURE CLIENT PHI DATA SECURITY

What is Considered a HIPAA Violation?

A HIPAA violation is defined as something that fails to fulfill the requirements of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (commonly known as HIPAA). HIPAA regulations can be violated in several ways, but the most common violation is the misuse or exposure of electronically protected health information (ePHI). Who enforces HIPAA? The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for the prosecution of violations and assessing penalties. In the past, the OCR has handled the first-ever digital offenses with technical help, apart from a financial fine. The technical support works great, but it can only do wonders if the organization that has done violation implements the new procedures and takes security measures.

Viloating HIPAA isn't as obvious as you might think and goes beyond what you might find on a typical EMR HIPAA compliance checklist. For example, the marketing team of the hospital posts a photo of a doctor and a patient to social media, and a "Cardiology" sign appears in the background, which can give the impression of the patient being treated for heart disease. This would be Protected Health Information (PHI) and should be protected under HIPAA, and if the consent of the patient were not gained to post the picture publicly, then this would be a costly violation. Now you can understand that even the most acquitted example of "incidental" PHI could result in HIPAA confidentiality violation.

Worker Mistakes

Data breaches can happen when workers misplace unencrypted moveable devices, wrongly transfer PHI to sellers who post that data online and reveal critical data on social networks. It is essential to conduct adherence and training of employees to security procedures and policies is tremendously significant.

Unencrypted Data

One thing you should keep in mind is that addressable does not mean elective. Most of the data breaches happened because of the lost or stolen information that was previously unencrypted. For this reason, you must apply the addressable application conditions as part of HIPAA security best practices.

Stored Information

Nearly half of all information breaches are happening due to theft. When laptops, cellphones, are unencrypted the breach risk rises significantly. The developers need to ensure that your data is securely stored; so that the stolen device has a token on it and there is no compromise on PHI data security.

Business Connections

Roughly two-thirds of all information breaches involved a business partner or an employee. It means you substitute a protected activity or function to somebody and that they have messed up. You need to choose your employees and other business partners carefully and train them appropriately. HIPAA logging requirements must be kept to track where and when these violations occured, as well as if any changes were made.

IS YOUR HIPPA EMR/EHR PROTECTED?

HIPAA Settlements, Penalties, and Fines

What happens if you violate HIPAA? For the complete list of HIPAA penalties and breaches, you can take an official visit to OCR's Breach Portal. OCR lists the uncountable small-scale HIPAA fines and infringements. On the complete HIPAA settlements list, you can see our HIPAA fines per record chart. One thing you should keep in mind is that high-scale settlements are just a portion of the penalties charged by federal investigators annually. If you have undergone a HIPAA breach, one of the costs of violating HIPAA for the practice is permanently listed on the "The Wall of Shame," with the date, offense, and the individuals affected as a result of it.

HIPAA Compliant Solution - Medical Development
CONSULT EXPERTS REGARDING HIPAA BEST PRACTICES

How Can Clarity Help with HIPAA Compliance?

In the end, federal fines for noncompliance are dependent upon the level of apparent carelessness present within your company during the time of the HIPAA violation. Most of the data breaches happened because of the lost or stolen information that was previously unencrypted. One of the significant data breaches stated to HHS has involved business connections. So, it can be said that the insecure data in the HIPAA compliant website increases the overall expense of online business in the long run.

Any health organization can face issues with HIPAA responsibilities when they start their digital journey. These problems can be overcome by working with a professional HIPAA development team and securing HIPAA compliant website hosting and secure medical app development. Clarity's HIPAA compliance services include:

  • HIPAA Complaint Website
  • HIPAA Compliant eCommerce integration
  • HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules
  • HIPAA Compliance Requirements
  • HIPAA Compliant Website Hosting
 
  • HIPAA Technical Safeguards
  • HIPAA Compliance Certification
  • HIPAA Password Requirements
  • HIPAA Compliant Mobile App Development
  • HIPAA ERP Portals