When patients visit a healthcare provider, they are entrusting that organization with their most sensitive information. This may include their private medical data, health insurance IDs, and Social Security Numbers. To help ensure the security and confidentiality of protected health information when it is transferred, received, handled, or shared, congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996.  Without the proper tools in place, not only are patients at risk of becoming a victim to cybercrime attacks and theft, but medical practices are at a high risk for HIPAA violations. 

What Happens if HIPAA Is Violated?

Large-scale settlements are only a fraction of the fines levied by federal investigators every year. Once you’ve had a HIPAA breach, the name of your practice is permanently listed on “The Wall of Shame”–including the offense, date, and number of individuals affected. The federal fines for noncompliance are based on the level of perceived negligence found within your organization at the time of the HIPAA violation. These fines can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation (or per record), with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per year for each violation. 

These Violations Can Be a Result Of:

• Lack of Business Associate Agreements (BAA) 
• Unsecure electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) 
• Lack of Risk Mitigation Processes and timely communication 
• Failure to remove access of ex-employees 
• Failure to understand basic requirements and risks 
• Malware infections and lack of security controls 

What Makes an Effective Compliance Program?

Every organization handling ePHI is subject to HIPAA, therefore, being at some level of security risk. To help ensure the security and confidentiality of ePHI, there are several actions your company can take to ensure you and your processes are safe.

• Security Risk Assessment 
• Privacy Assessment 
• Security Standards Audit 
• Asset and Device Audit 
• Physical Site Audit 
• HITECH Audit 

How AccelHealth Systems Can Help



AccelHealth Systems provides intelligent, automated, and secure solutions for healthcare organizations. Our smart solution tools simplify the management of patient information and may reduce the cost of compliance to HIPAA and other regulations. Medical practices can now capture and convert structured and non-structured information such as claims, patient forms, insurance cards, and more, with intelligent scanning technology.  This is then followed by the indexing of documents based on customized criteria so that they can be found again with just a few quick clicks. 

By implementing our smart solutions, your organization will have confidence knowing that your company is fully HIPAA compliant and guard against costly penalties.