Is Big Brother watching? You bet! The Office of Civil Rights from the Department of Health and Human Services has initiated a pilot program to audit Hospitals and assure that HIPPA standards are being met. Fines of up to $50,000 per occurence are in place and the auditors are ready to search for violations.
As reported by Drinker Biddle, ” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has begun auditing covered entities for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) under the HIPAA Audit Program (Audit Program). The Audit Program is funded by the Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and requires HHS to conduct periodic audits to ensure both covered entities and business associates are complying with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, as well as all Breach Notification standards.”
The department of HHS has released information regarding the audit plan. The information provided by HHS includes information about who will be audited, how the program works and the timeline for auditing. Click here to review the information provided by HHS.
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Do the inspectors get a percentage of the fines that they impose? Once again, the government is looking for ways to suck the money out of the health care industry.