3 Common HIPAA Violations You Should Be Aware Of

As such, any business that is connected to patient privacy in any way has to maintain certain rules and regulations while dealing with that information. Such businesses are called "covered entities" and they can be a health care provider like doctors; health care clearinghouses and also companies that provide health plan like HMO. There are some strict rules laid by HIPAA which are to be followed by any "covered entities" and violation leads to criminal and civil penalties. The 3 common violations that you should be aware of as an owner of such a business are as follows:

1. As an owner, you should ensure that there is no administrative violation by the people who work with you. You must make sure that your employees undergo HIPAA training and they strictly follow specific rules to protect and secure the medical information of the person covered. HIPAA provides a uniform level of protection of all health information that is in housed. It is important to educate the entire workforce to protect against the threats, for the security of such information.

2. If you find that this information has been compromised is some way, you are bound to send all participants who will be affected by it, this information within 60 days. If you fail to send this notice as a "covered entity", it will be held as violation of HIPAA rule.

3. Even how your employees talk about patients is to be monitored under HIPAA. For example, doctors cannot discuss certain aspects of patient information, like the name of the patient, when talking to another doctor in public. This will be a violation as anyone can hear confidential information of a patient in such a scenario.