Ready to break the annual budget? If you are not HIPAA compliant and get caught, you are going to have to pony up even more money for HIPAA fines, predicts a high ranking Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) attorney!
HHS Chief Regional Civil Rights Counsel Jerome Meites made the prediction at an American Bar Association conference on Thursday in Chicago.
We have already seen record breaking fines handed out over the last year, which makes this even more shocking to the industry.
Law360, the publication that first reported the comment, said HHS received more than $10 million for alleged HIPAA violations since June 2013.
“Knowing what’s in the pipeline, I suspect that that number will be low compared to what’s coming up,” Meites said.
The belief is that the more “high-impact” cases can have an affect on an industry that has been slow to move towards the HIPAA requirements.