The Hipaa Security Rule ( Hitech )

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the fraction. It is obvious that the covered entity violated the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule most especially in the HIPAA Security Rule. Under HITECH Act, the monetary penalties for HIPAA violations were increased. Civil penalties vary based on the type of violation. The minimum civil penalty is $100 up to a maximum of $50,000 for one violation if the covered entity was unaware of the violation and would have not known even if with reasonable diligence. The penalty range rises to $, 1000 to 50, 000 if the violation was due reasonable cause and not to willful neglect. If the violation was due to willful neglect, but is corrected within 30 days the penalty is at least $10,000 and up to $50,000. If the violation is due to willful neglect and is not corrected within 30 days the penalty is at least $50,000 with an annual maximum of $1.5 million per year. The omnibus final rules indicate that for all categories of violations of an identical provision in a calendar year, the maximum penalty is 1.5 million per year (Balser Group, 2014, p. 41). I believe that the settlements were fair because the UCLA clearly violated a lot of the HIPAA Privacy and Security rule such as failure to implement security measures, failure to provide adequate training to the employees, and violating the privacy of the patients’ health records. Explain your understanding of the HIPAA privacy and security rules. The major goal of HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is to provide insurance portability, fraud enforcement, and administrative simplification for the health care industry. HIPAA was created because of the growing concerns about keeping health care information private, the need to consolidate non-standard health care data ... ... middle of paper ... ... of potential threats such as unauthorized access of the patient information. Health care leaders must always remind their employees that casual review for personal interest of patients ' protected health information is unacceptable and against the law just like what happened in the UCLA health systems case (Fiske, 2011). Health care organizations need clear policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations. Through policies and procedures, entities covered under HIPAA must reasonably restrict access to patient information to only those employees with a valid reason to view the information and must sanction any employee who is found to have violated these policies.In addition, it is critical that health care organizations should implement awareness and training programs for all members of its workforce (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2013).

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