The American Chiropractor Volume 36, Issue 6 | Page 20

COMPLIANCE

Take Action to Avoid the Most
Common HIPAA Violations
M
By Mark Sanna, DC, ACRE Level II, FICC

ost chiropractors are familiar with the importance of
safeguarding their patients' protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the consequences that can occur from a violation of the privacy law. Even if you are one of
them, your practice could still be in danger of violating HIPAA
if you are not up-to-date on the changes to the laws brought by
the final HIPAA omnibus rule.

The changes brought to HIPAA by the omnibus rule mean
that a violation could result in not only a damage to your reputation, but also significant criminal and civil fines. The new
enforcement features , strengthened by an active program of
HIPAA audits, means your practice must be more vigilant of Provide your patients with this information upon intake and
your privacy and security programs than ever before. Let's take periodically follow up with patients to be sure that they are
some [YH