Your Top HIPAA Compliance Consultant
The HIPAA Privacy rule regulates and monitors the use of Protected Health Information (PHI) by organizations such as medical practices and insurance companies. Although this protocol was originally made law in 2003, January 2013 marked the enactment of the Final Omnibus Rule, which included technological updates for the handling of sensitive patient information.
If you know that your practice has to be HIPAA compliant, and you don’t have a plan to meet the strict regulations of this law, you and your staff could be labeled with a condition that the government refers to as “willful neglect.” Strictly speaking, this is defined as the conscious or intentional failure to comply with the regulations and provisions set forth by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
What does this mean for practices and physicians found guilty of “willful neglect”? As the result of recent changes, such as the Final Omnibus Rule, your practice could be at risk for thousands of dollars in fines and penalties.