You can avoid HIPAA violations if youвЂ™ve made a thorough and continuous effort to stay in compliance before any breach occurs. How can you avoid HIPAA violations in the event of a breach? Unsecured ePHI is ePHI that hasnвЂ™t been вЂњrendered unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized personsвЂќ by encryption or destruction of the data. For a leak of information to be considered a breach under HIPAA, the information exposed must be unsecured. What is a data breach according to HIPAA?ДЄccording to HIPAA, a breach occurs when protected electronic Personal Health Information (ePHI) is used or disclosed in any way that compromises its security or privacy in violation of the Privacy Rule. The best defense for a data breach is preparation. And if you do experience a breach, there are specific protocols you should follow depending upon the severity of the breach. However, under HIPAA, there are specific steps you need to take to mitigate any risk to the HIPAA protected health information that you hold and process in anticipation of a breach.

If you have a breach, it doesnвЂ™t necessarily mean it was a result of a HIPAA violation.

The Department of Health and Human ServicesвЂ™ Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), understands this. In todayвЂ™s increasingly digital environment, data breaches are a common and unfortunate occurrence. Even if youвЂ™re HIPAA compliant, youвЂ™re not immune to data breaches.

Hipaa breach notification rule