Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act - Essay Example

With the advent of social media and networking tools, medical information is now available to a host of people. However, medical laws do not ensure proper security and privacy. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is an endeavor to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the patient’s health and illness-related information. The Act requires such entities or practitioners to use universal standards and an ethical code of the system to process healthcare transactions.

Enforcement rule The provisions regarding the enforcement of HIPAA, violations to the prescribed standards and subsequent penalties are stated in the Enforcement Rule of HIPAA. It is codified under Part 160 and subsections C, D and E of the Active document. Penalties under HIPAA Negligence and ignorance towards privacy and security standards under the HIPAA act account to civil penalty coming under general category and amounts to fines of up to $ 25K for all violations within a year. In the case of willful negligence and wrongful misuse of patient’s healthcare information, it is considered as a criminal offence under HIPAA and both fines and imprisonment apply.

The fine can reach up to the limit of $ 250 K and imprisonment of maximum 10 years or both (McGraw Hill n.d).