While many companies express a desire to effectively manage HIPAA requirements, they’re worried they’re not always doing it perfectly.
By now, I think everyone has signed (or ticked the box if your doctor uses a tablet) a HIPAA form. Most of us know it has “something” to do with privacy, but we simply sign the form and then shuffle back to a seat to await our appointment.
For those of you who provide healthcare services; it’s not as simple as that.
Everyone in the healthcare industry knows about HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, passed in 1996). The goal of the law is simple – to safeguard patient health information. The law dictates how protected health information (PHI) can be shared, when it can be shared, and with whom it can be shared.
As a patient, it’s heartening to hear our customers and potential customers in healthcare (down to small practices with two or three physicians) want to understand how technology (copiers, document management, and workflow especially) can help to more efficiently manage this protected information. That makes me feel like my doctor – and other providers – care about protecting my privacy.
On the other hand, while many companies express a desire to effectively manage HIPAA requirements, they’re worried they’re not always doing it perfectly. Hand in hand with that is a general misunderstanding of what can happen to a practice that is found to be non-compliant with HIPAA.
The following is a snapshot of information from the HIPAA Journal and reinforces why Healthcare Providers CANNOT be flippant regarding HIPAA (and HITECH) compliance – the potential for costly fines and even criminal penalties can’t be ignored.
The four categories used for the penalty structure are as follows:
The tiers for Criminal HIPAA penalties are:
Datamax delivers a variety of Document Workflow and Document Management solutions and services to help organizations comply with the many regulatory requirements established by HIPAA and HITECH, especially given the most recent Final Rule governing privacy and security.
Our capabilities will allow you to faithfully:
Could your Healthcare organization use additional assistance or better focus with tightening up workflow, information security, and regulatory compliance? We would love to vist!
1Source: More details on HIPAA Violations can be found at: http://www.hipaajournal.com/what-are-the-penalties-for-hipaa-violations-7096/