What Are the Costs of HIPAA Violations?

If you are in the health care industry, you know how serious the impact of HIPAA violations can be on your business. This hasn’t always been the case. In fact, in the past, as long as nothing bad happened to your data, HIPAA regulations weren’t taken too seriously. Today, though, HIPAA rules are becoming firmer, and in the upcoming year, violation penalties will become more severe. Not only can you get fined, but you could also get up to 10 years of jail time for the most severe infractions! Obviously, HIPAA violations are not something you want to take lightly. As they become more stringent, it is important to learn not only how to avoid violations but to know the types of violations. The violations are generally split up into two different levels.

Low-Level HIPAA Violations

Low-level HIPAA violations are things like policies and procedures that do not align with HIPAA guidelines, such as having a firewall slightly below guidelines. While they are still HIPAA violations, they do not carry very heavy fines, and you can sometimes get away with just a warning. You may still have some time to figure these out as HIPAA starts to get more serious about violations. That being said, don’t wait too long!

High-Level HIPAA Violations

This is where it gets dangerous. High-level HIPAA violations can result in fines of over $1.5 million and even jail time – enough to put you out of business. You can’t afford to delay protecting yourself from these violations, as meeting some of the rules can take time and money to roll out. Most of these high-level HIPAA violations are triggered by patient data breaches caused by negligence. This could mean not encrypting your patient data, failing to require secure passwords, or intentionally selling patient data (which will land you in jail). If you do get fined, it is crucial that you fix the problem. If you break the same HIPAA violation twice, you could be facing a fine up to $1.5 million. In other words, don’t violate HIPAA.

Avoid HIPAA Violations with Managed IT Services

As HIPAA rules continue to change and penalties become more significant, it is important to adhere to the rules. Because it can be so time-consuming to do this, it may be a good idea to hire a managed IT services company like Swift Systems to take care of it for you. We are experts in HIPAA adherence, and can allow you to sleep easy at night knowing you won’t wake up to that $1.5 million fine. Contact Swift today, and see how we can help you.

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