Is Your Health Information Secure?

Today (September 23, 2013) the new HIPAA Omnibus Rules have been released by the Federal Government. You can find the summary of these rules on the American Medical Association website here.  These rules have been described by the HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Leon Rodriguez:

 “This final omnibus rule marks the most sweeping changes to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules since they were first implemented. These changes not only greatly enhance a patient’s privacy rights and protections, but also strengthen the ability of my office to vigorously enforce the HIPAA privacy and security protections, regardless of whether the information is being held by a health plan, a health care provider, or one of their business associates.”

The rules are to keep your health information safe and secure.  Before 2009, penalties for not following HIPAA Privacy Rules were not much of a threat.  Each transgression could be fined up to a maximum of $100 with an annual cap of $25,000. Since that cut off point however, breaches of the Privacy Rule have incurred Civil Penalties of up to $50,000 per violation and an annual cap of $1,5000,000.

Check with your payment provider to see if they are HIPAA compliant. For more information call Tina at 888.413.9186