Campanelli, between April 14, 2003, and the end of February 2004, his office received more than 4,700 HIPAA privacy complaints. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is charged with enforcing the HIPAA privacy rule against covered entities, such as physician groups.
Mistake 1 Believing That HIPAA Enforcement Will Never Happen to the Physician Group Such mistakes can lead to costly results and could compromise the goodwill of the physician group in the eyes of their patients. Given the complexity of the rule, many physician groups have not taken the time to understand the purposes of HIPAA or undertaken HIPAA compliance in a serious manner. The rule subjects providers to stiff penalties, including $100 per violation up to a maximum of $25,000 per year, or even as much as $250,000 for a violation that is knowingly done with the intent to sell, transfer, or use PHI for commercial, personal, or malicious advantage, plus imprisonment of not more than 10 years. However, as patients become more educated on the requirements of the rule and on the rights of individual patients regarding protected health information (PHI), patients could file complaints against the physician group, a covered entity under the HIPAA privacy rule. They may therefore think that noncompliance is their best route or that being overprotective of information is an easy way to avoid the rule. Many physician groups believe that complying with the privacy rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is an arduous task.
#HIPAA COMPLIANCE FORMS FOR PATIENTS HOW TO#
(©2005 SEAK, Inc.) Download Free 646 Page E-book: The Biggest Legal Mistakes Physicians Make and How to Avoid Them Excerpted from The Biggest Legal Mistakes Physicians Make: And How to Avoid ThemĮdited by Steven Babitsky, Esq.
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