HIPAA Enforcement Update: What Your Compliance Program Should Do About the New HIPAA Enforcement Rule

Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, Esq., health care attorney, Glast Phillips & Murray, PC, Dallas.
Cynthia Stamer has spent more than 17 years as a health care attorney: she has extensive legal and operational experience with medical and other privacy and data security matters. A popular lecturer on privacy and data security and other related health care and health plan matters, Ms. Stamer is the author of hundreds of acclaimed publications and training programs on medical privacy and data security and other health care and health plan related topics. She advises hospitals, physicians and other providers about reimbursement, compliance and audit issues. For additional information about Ms. Stamer, see www.216.119.86.47.

Ned Milenkovich, health care attorney, Jones Day, Chicago.
Ned Milenkovich has extensive knowledge and experience with compliance matters relating to the HIPAA standards, including privacy, transaction code sets, and security. His legal practice is concentrated in the area of health care law, including representing hospitals and other health care providers in regulatory matters such as Medicare reimbursement and payment, and HIPAA.He also focuses on issues relating to state pharmacy laws and the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit Program.

1. Register online

2. You get a toll-free number to dial in on the day of the conference. There is no limit to the number of staff from your office who can listen to the seminar via speakerphone!*

3. You receive dialing instructions and a link to the audio seminar’s course materials via email, so you can follow along during the presentation.

4. Listen in, follow along with the course materials you’ve printed out, ask questions and get the answers you need to modify your compliance program to respond to the new HIPAA civil penalty enforcement rule.

* One phone line per registration. Additional connections subject to additional registration fees.

Once and for all, HHS has issued the final rule that describes when and how the Office of Civil Rights will impose civil fines against health care providers or other HIPAA-covered entities that violate HIPAA. It sets out the penalties for breaking the rules on security, privacy, the national provider identifier, the employer identifier, electronic claims and e-prescriptions.

Health care providers and other HIPAA-covered entities need to know this rule because it explains: 1) how one mistake or bad policy can expand into a myriad of penalties; 2) the process that will govern the Office of Civil Rights’ investigation and prosecution of violations; and 3) scenarios in which an organization will be responsible for violations of employees, business associates, branch offices and subsidiaries.

Providers and other covered entities face substantial criminal and civil penalties if they, or members of their workforce, violate HIPAA. Civil fines for HIPAA violations are set at $100 a day and can rise to a maximum of $25,000 for identical violations that repeat over the course of a year. To address these dangers, this session will help you:

Frame the issues to limit the size and scope of violations;
Understand the circumstances that may expose your organization to civil fines, criminal prosecution or both under HIPAA;
Strengthen your procedures for investigating and responding to patient complaints or actions of employees, business associates and others giving rise to HIPAA liability concerns;
Learn ways to deal with privacy, security and transactions violations of affiliates, branch offices, and others to help minimize your exposure to fines or other penalties; and
Tailor your HIPAA compliance processes to better prevent or mitigate hefty civil penalties for HIPAA violations.