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The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), an agency that is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently published a brochure that describes the procedure for filing HIPAA privacy complaints with OCR.
The brochure is called “Protecting Your Civil Rights in Health Care and Social Services and Your Health Information Privacy Rights.” It does not contain much new information. It does outline the potential infractions and violations for individuals who have Protected Health Information. More importantly, the brochure signals an increased effort by HHS to increase HIPAA awareness among the general public. Earlier this year, HHS issued final regulations on enforcement of HIPAA’s privacy, security and electronic data interchange rules. These regulations are now in effect.
HIPAA does not have a private right of action for individuals to address privacy and security violations. Instead, enforcement is mostly complaint-driven. For security violations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are responsible for enforcement.
The healthcare industry is entering a new era of HIPAA compliance. Thus far, HHS has taken a very cooperative approach in enforcing HIPAA. This appears to be changing. The enforcement rules give HHS an ample arsenal to penalize non-compliant entities, up to $25,000 for violation of a single rule. Prudent employers should review their HIPAA policies and procedures regularly to ensure that they remain in compliance. If you are not compliant, you may want to consider Infinisource’s HIPAA Solved product. Contact our Sales Team at 800-779-6384 for more information.
Review the above-mentioned brochure at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/OCRbro20051202.pdf.
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