At the end of November, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced inflation adjustments for HIPAA penalties and a few others. Group health plan sponsors and other entities who violate any rules of HIPAA will see a penalty increase of 1.182%.

HIPAA is broken down into four tiers of violations, categorized by level of culpability, with minimum and maximum penalty amounts for each and an annual cap for multiple breaches of an identical HIPAA provision. We've outlined these changes for you:

Minimum Penalties

2021

2020<...

There is a lot of conversation around what’s considered a violation of HIPAA rights and what is not. So, before we share the most common violations to be aware of, we feel we should first brief you on what HIPAA is and to whom it applies.

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and intends to protect individuals' health information while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide high-quality healthcare. HIPAA consists of three parts: the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Breach Notification Rule.

Applies to:

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With so much in the news recently about cybersecurity risks and breaches, there is no doubt a company’s privacy and security is serious business. Cybersecurity risks also affect HIPAA privacy and security regulations that shield protected health information (PHI).

Employers cited and fined by the Departments (HHS and OCR) for HIPAA violations sacrifice millions in penalties, legal fees, and private litigation. Money lost is bad enough, but we must also consider the impact of losing a business’s reputation.

Did you know? Significant penalties for small companies are more prevalent than ever....