As per HIPAA, Protected Health Information (PHI) can be defined as any demographic information that can be used to identify the patient. Earlier it was observed that an employee of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) used her position to illegally get access to the PHI of 111 individual patients between the March 30, 2016, and August 14, 2017.

There was a charge in 4 different cases that the former patient information was wrongfully disclosing the protected health information of 3 individuals in December 30, 2016 and August 11, 2017. The case claims that these incidents were intended to cause harm but the court documents do no specifically record the harm that was intended by her. The employee during her tenure had access to PHI in 3 organizations as she could use electronic health records. Her services in the organizations were of the nature where she had to access the information of the patient so as to provide them the services.

As it case criminal offence and she was to face imprisonment of 11 years and fine of $ 350,000 or both. She was also asked to post an unsecured bond of 4$ 10,000 on 28 June, this report was conferred by the court. There was FBI investigation in the matter. The indictment is simply records of an accusation and tries to portray the defendant presumed innocent until proven guilty.

NEW TRENDS OF HIPAA COMPLIANCE

The case is amongst one of the high profile criminal HIPAA indictments and convictions over the last few years. As per the HHS 0ffice for Civil Rights Director, officer the OCR intends to solve these cases by means of voluntary compliance and will ensure all necessary steps to include litigation and to achieve apt ways to stop or prevent the violation of the HIPAA rules.

Threats or zones for possible risks in the compliance of HIPAA is associated with criminal indictments. There has been growth in the threat of civil HIPAA lawsuits. Cases where the physician has been found guilty and was charged with criminal offence for the HIPAA violation and thereby indicating that there is not only presence of threat faced by lower level employees. Thus it is observed that there is presence of risk in every size and scope and is faced by health care professional.

SOLUTIONS FOR HIPAA

There are ways that could confirm that HIPAA compliance is assured at all levels of professional healthcare. There should continuous employee HIPAA training to help them become and remain HIPAA compliant. The continuous and rigorous training of the employees at all levels assures that in there are no criminal cases of breach of HIPAA laws and if at all there is a breach it is all due to negligence and was unintentional. There should be training regarding the course of step that should be followed in case of breach so as to prevent the damage. Thus it is via training that HIPAA violations can be stopped or avoided.