HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act )  OCR (Office of Civil Rights)

The first phase of the audits of compliance with HIPAA were conducted as a pilot program in 2011 and 2012, and focused solely on healthcare providers. This round will cover providers, as well as their business associates and contractors.

“The audits present an opportunity to examine mechanisms for compliance, identify best practices, discover risks and vulnerabilities that may not have come to light through OCR’s ongoing complaint investigations and compliance reviews, and enable us to get out in front of problems before they result in breaches,” OCR officials said in a fact sheet.

OCR anticipates the desk audits to be completed by the end of 2016, with the onsite audits beginning later in the year. In 2014, OCR officials said the audits will be “rapidly” conducted and likely result in enforcement actions. The second phase of the audits were originally expected to begin last year.

OCR reached nine settlements related to HIPAA breaches over the past year, resulting in a total of $11 million fines, according to Bloomberg BNA.

Blogger comment:

Another example of our over reaching government looking for enforcement fines and penalties.  The HIPAA law generally fixes a problem that didn’t exist until it was passed by the Clinton Administration anticipating the evolution of cyber space distributing confidential patient information.  Until now it was enforced by word of mouth of whistleblowers looking for money.  Now Big Brother will use is against the providers without due process.  Just another nail in the health care coffin by Obama care and its OCR/IRS 16,000 enforcers.