Compliance & Legal
HIPAA Enforcement Rule
The rule setting out how HIPAA violations are investigated and penalized.
The HIPAA Enforcement Rule establishes the procedures the Office for Civil Rights uses to investigate complaints, conduct compliance reviews, and impose civil monetary penalties for HIPAA violations.
Penalties are tiered by culpability, from unknowing violations to willful neglect, with fines that can reach into the millions of dollars per year for repeated violations of the same requirement. The Enforcement Rule is the mechanism that gives the Privacy and Security Rules real teeth.