how serious are HIPAA violations taken?

[RUSerious]

Received notice from our insurance company that private medical records of ours were accessed by an employee of the ins company (who is an RN..and an ex) what really happens to HIPAA violators? Is it all just a bag of hot air and threats or do they really take it seriously and fire the person?

[42pines]

How about $1,215,780? That's the actual amount that Heath and Human Services settled a complaint where a leasing company leased photocopiers that had been used within medical environments. Many photocopiers keep data on hard drives so literally thousands of pages of data can be unintentionally stored. The disks need to be wiped before re-leasing and the leasing agency failed.

If you want to see more search for:

HHS Settles with Health Plan in Photocopier Breach Case ... Plan, Inc. will settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules for $1,215,780.

This being said, the seriousness depends on the severity which depends upon what was released and was there intent. Being overheard in an elevator that patient A takes a baby aspirin every day is not quite so actionable as being overheard that patient A is taking (insert a med used to exclusively treat AIDS).