10 Most Common HIPAA Violations

Information Disclosed by Employees: Chatting about the patients to your friends or colleagues is an HIPAA violation which can cost you fine. Employees should do careful conversations regarding patients and should not disclose any medical information of the patient with friends and family.

Mishandled patient's Medical Report:  Another common HIPAA violation is handled patient’s medical report carelessly. All the medical records must be kept in locker and safe out of the public's view.

Lost or Stolen Devices: If your laptops, desktops, smartphones, and other devices have stolen which contained patient’s medical information that means you are violating the HIPPA rule and you have pay fine for that. Mobile can be easily misplaced; you should put a password for protection or keep safely.

Texting patient Information: Texting medical information of patients like signs or test results is the easiest way to relay information quickly. With the new software program one can safeguard the medical information, but both parties should have that program installed on their device. To avoid all these HIPAA Privacy Certification is needed.

                                         

Social Media: Social media has reached everywhere nowadays. Posting pictures of your patient on social media is also considered an HIPAA violation. If you do not mention the patient’s name that seems to be harmless, but it can be possible that someone can recognize the patient or the doctor. Be very careful about sharing any kind of information on social media as it will consider as violating HIPPA law.

Having the Illegal Access to Patient’s File: If an employee who does not have the authorization to access patients’ medical information file does so; it is another HIPPA violation. Whether it is for relative or friend or for a favor it is illegal and you have to pay fine for that also. If anyone uses or sell personal health information has to pay fine or even prison time also.

Social Breaches: Many people are not aware of the HIPPA law and they often make an inquiry about their friend or relative who is a patient. When this type of inquiry is made a well-planned response is the best way to avoid accidentally releasing patient private information.

 Authorization Requirement: A written document is always needed for the use of any patient’s medical information which is not used for treatment, payment or permitted by the privacy rule. If the employee has any confusion it is always necessary to get a prior authorization before giving any information.

Use the home computer to access patient information: It has been seen that many employees use to access patient information to follow up or match records. This is also an HIPPA violation as you family member can use your system. So you should always put a password on your system to protect the information. HIPAA Security Certification is helpful for privacy and safeguards the information.

Lack of Training: This is one of the most common violations who is not familiar with HIPPA rules. Through compliance training, one can avoid the HIPPA violation.