HIPAA Training

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The effective compliance date was April 2003. What you need to know is:

• - that the government mandates training each year;
• - that the government initially said that they weren’t going to enforce penalties for a while, but now they are and
• - that the penalties were recently increased to up to $50,000 per violation and up to $1,500,000 per year.

Covered Entities

• - Health plans
• - Health care providers
• - Health Care Clearinghouses

Health care providers who transmit health information in electronic form in connection with transactions for which the Secretary of HHS has adopted standards under HIPAA is a Covered Entity.

As of 2009, civil monetary penalties range from $100 to $50,000 per incident, up to $1,500,000 per year, per standard for failure to comply with the requirements.

Criminal penalties for wrongful release of PHI (false pretenses / selling information / malicious harm) from $50,000 / 1year prison to $250,000 / up to 10 years prison.

All staff members for all providers are required to participate in HIPAA training.