HIPAA violation cases
There are all kinds of HIPAA violation cases out there - whether they violate the security, administrative or technical safeguards, data breaches often occur within certain parameters, as can be seen from research of the HHS reported breaches affecting 500 individuals or more.
If you’re looking for what the penalties and fines are for certain types of HIPAA violations, see the chart below (recently updated to reflect the final HIPAA rules):
According to the final HIPAA modifications, in applying these amounts, the Department will not impose the maximum penalty amount in all cases but rather will determine the penalty amounts based on the nature and extent of the violation, the nature and extent of the resulting harm, and the other factors.
The most common cases in the news involved the following:
Although this may be due to the fact that encrypted data breaches do not have to be reported, the vast majority of data breaches are due to stolen or lost data that was unencrypted. A common theme includes the data archiving method of using backup tapes to store patient health records.
While increasing and monitoring security of the storage facilities is important, another alternative is IT disaster recovery for the cloud. By eliminating tape backup, cloud disaster recovery can increase recovery time objectives (RTO) and restore your server data and applications in hours.
Two separate cases involved an employee leaving unencrypted backup tapes with PHI in their vehicles while parked off-premises. Another case was due to employees mistakenly sending PHI to contractors that posted the information publicly online. Still others include disclosing sensitive information on social media networks that could be personally identifiable.
Almost half of all data breach types can be attributed to the theft of physical records - 49 percent. When portable devices are unencrypted or not properly secured by passwords, pins and other security methods, the risk of a PHI breach increases considerably. Additionally, if you’re not backing up your data frequently, you can lose a lot of valuable patient records if you lose your laptop, smartphone, etc.
Another mistake made in many HIPAA violation cases is the date of notification to HHS and affected individuals. HHS requires extensive documentation within 10 days of a data breach, with at least 15 specific components that relate to the covered entity’s internal investigation, policies and procedures, physical safeguards, risk assessment, and breach notification.
If you’re looking for what the penalties and fines are for certain types of HIPAA violations, see the chart below (recently updated to reflect the final HIPAA rules):
According to the final HIPAA modifications, in applying these amounts, the Department will not impose the maximum penalty amount in all cases but rather will determine the penalty amounts based on the nature and extent of the violation, the nature and extent of the resulting harm, and the other factors.
The most common cases in the news involved the following:
Although this may be due to the fact that encrypted data breaches do not have to be reported, the vast majority of data breaches are due to stolen or lost data that was unencrypted. A common theme includes the data archiving method of using backup tapes to store patient health records.
While increasing and monitoring security of the storage facilities is important, another alternative is IT disaster recovery for the cloud. By eliminating tape backup, cloud disaster recovery can increase recovery time objectives (RTO) and restore your server data and applications in hours.
Two separate cases involved an employee leaving unencrypted backup tapes with PHI in their vehicles while parked off-premises. Another case was due to employees mistakenly sending PHI to contractors that posted the information publicly online. Still others include disclosing sensitive information on social media networks that could be personally identifiable.
Almost half of all data breach types can be attributed to the theft of physical records - 49 percent. When portable devices are unencrypted or not properly secured by passwords, pins and other security methods, the risk of a PHI breach increases considerably. Additionally, if you’re not backing up your data frequently, you can lose a lot of valuable patient records if you lose your laptop, smartphone, etc.
Another mistake made in many HIPAA violation cases is the date of notification to HHS and affected individuals. HHS requires extensive documentation within 10 days of a data breach, with at least 15 specific components that relate to the covered entity’s internal investigation, policies and procedures, physical safeguards, risk assessment, and breach notification.
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