{"id":7139,"date":"2025-06-29T15:56:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brightsquid.com\/us\/?p=7139"},"modified":"2025-07-07T09:58:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T09:58:52","slug":"10-examples-of-hipaa-violations-how-to-prevent-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brightsquid.com\/us\/10-examples-of-hipaa-violations-how-to-prevent-them\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Common HIPAA Violations and How to Prevent Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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When the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996, the goal was to create a framework that would help protect sensitive patient health information (PHI) from being misused by healthcare organizations, insurance providers and allied healthcare service providers. Over the years, HIPAA has dramatically improved the baseline level of PHI security in the United States with the help of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which constantly monitors for HIPAA violations and levies heavy penalties for HIPAA breaches by employers.<\/p>

In this article, we will take a closer look at the 10 most common types of HIPAA violations, both intentional and unintentional, real-world examples of HIPAA violations by employers over the last two decades, and steps that can be taken to prevent them from happening at your healthcare clinic or business.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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What is HIPAA Violation
<\/b><\/h2>

Before we begin, let\u2019s understand how the OCR and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) define a HIPAA violation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A HIPAA violation is any action (or inaction) that puts a patient\u2019s protected health information at risk or fails to comply with the HIPAA privacy, security, or breach reporting standards.<\/b><\/p>

It occurs when a covered entity or its business associate fails to comply with any of the HIPAA rules. The organization responsible for the violation is charged with HIPAA breach penalties depending on the impact and nature of the breach.<\/span><\/p>

Why HIPAA Violations Still Happen in 2025<\/b><\/h2>

Since its enforcement in 1996, the OCR has received over 300,000 complaints of HIPAA rule violations and has collected more than $165 million in penalties and settlements. Over the years, healthcare organizations and businesses have become more aware and sensitised to the proper ways of handling patient health information. Needless to say, HIPAA has definitely improved the healthcare data protection and management practices in the US.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

But despite these improvements, breaches continue to happen, especially with the advent of digitization and the rise of cyberattacks. According to the HHS, the OCR reported 588 healthcare data breaches in 2024 alone, impacting nearly 180 million individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The cost of these breaches continues to rise, with IBM\u2019s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report revealing that healthcare has held the highest data breach costs across all industries since 2011, averaging a staggering $10.93 million per incident.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: <\/span>IBM\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>

The IBM report and other statistics point towards the need for increasing awareness among covered entities and business associates as to what constitutes a HIPAA violation and its significance and impact, so that they may take the necessary steps to prevent them and avoid heavy HIPAA breach penalties.<\/span><\/p>

Below, we list the 10 most common HIPAA Violations in the US and discuss some real-world cases associated with each.<\/span><\/p>

HIPAA Violation #1 \u2013 Unauthorized Access to PHI<\/b><\/h2>

The most common type of HIPAA violation reported is the unauthorized access of PHI by employees at healthcare facilities. This happens either when an authorized employee is given access to more patient data than what is necessary to offer the required service, or when PHI access is given to employees who are not directly involved in the care service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

While the former is a clear violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule\u2019s Minimum Necessary Standard, the latter violates both the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules.<\/span><\/p>

One of the most famous examples of this HIPAA violation is the<\/span> Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre breach of 2013.<\/span><\/a> The hospital fired six of its employees for inappropriately snooping into medical records of celebrity patients, including Kim Kardashian, and faced a $95,000 HIPAA fine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In this particular case, the nature of the HIPAA violation by the employees was intentional. However, the hospital was responsible for ensuring that PHI access was given only to staff members directly involved in the case, and that physical and technical safeguards were in place to protect unauthorized access.<\/span><\/p>

How to Prevent<\/b><\/h3>

Here\u2019s how hospitals can prevent unauthorized access to PHI and avoid such HIPAA violations.<\/span><\/p>