Let’s begin with some good news regarding HIPAA updates. The total number of healthcare data breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hit a record five-year low in 2025. The other side of the picture shows a total of 710 breaches, with each affecting 500 individuals, according to a HIPAA Journal Report. Another statistical report shares a protected health information (PHI) breach incident of above 61.5 million individuals, or 18% of all U.S. residents in 2025.
With every violation, HIPAA penalties may reach up to $50,000 and an annual violation fine up to $.15 million; medical practices must follow HIPAA-compliant protocols. HIPAA regulations are ever-changing and complex, but a well-trained staff on HIPAA compliance can protect against instances of violations. This comprehensive guide discusses 10 HIPAA violation examples and some practical ways to avoid them.
What Are HIPAA Violations?
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996. It is a federal-level law meticulously designed to avoid HIPAA covered entities and business associates from breaching protected health information (PHI) without the patient’s permission. There are different HIPAA privacy rules, and one of them requires healthcare providers to give patients’ data access to verified staff.
What Is Protected Health Information?
There are three major types of data included in PHI:
- Medical and Clinical Data: It includes diagnosis, lab test results, prescriptions, and medical treatment plans.
- Patient Identifiers: It includes names, addresses, fingerprints, Social Security numbers, and other biometric identifiers.
- Financial and Billing Information: It includes all the payment information, insurance policy numbers and other relevant details.
What Are 10 Common HIPAA Violations?
Let’s understand the top 10 HIPAA violation examples that belong to real-world situations. These violations are more about mishandling of PHI, violating HIPAA privacy or Breach Notification Rules. The examples discussed below are around training gaps, access control loopholes, and vulnerable devices and ways about how to avoid HIPAA violations are also part of the guide.
1- Illegitimate PHI Access from a Risky Location
Failure to keep the patient’s protected health record is a common HIPAA violation. It is common for staff to access the PHI record, including patients’ files, from their personal digital devices from any unprotected location, even using unprotected wifi. One of the data breach activity reveals the involvement of a Columbia University Physician who deactivated the personal server where ePHI of the patients was saved, exposed on the internet. The effective way to avoid this situation is to keep the data encrypted and safe from unauthorized access.
2- Data Encryption Gaps for Electronic PHI
Failure of healthcare providers to keep the electronic PHI encrypted across all devices and systems is a direct violation of HIPAA privacy regulations. Such negligence faces penalties. HIPAA security protocols require healthcare businesses to follow encryption standards to keep the patients’ data protected. In case the electronic PHI is lost, and bad actors try to bypass the password, encryption keeps the intruders at bay.
3- Employee Snooping and Dishonesty
In 2017, South Florida Memorial Healthcare System (MHS) reported two of its staff members were involved in illegally accessing PHI. The records of 115,000 patients were stolen to sell. Healthcare employees often try for unauthorized access to records. Such illegal access attempts are driven by curiosity, family relationships or financial motivations. The preventive way is to implement strict access controls, conduct staff training on privacy regulations, and strictly monitor audit logs.
4- Hacking Attempts or Phishing Attacks
If you are curious about what the most common violation of HIPAA is, it is cyber attacks. The Anthem data breach incident is recorded as one of the biggest breach incidents in history, where a series of hacking attempts compromised ePHI of nearly 79 million patients in 2015. Anthem faced a lawsuit and paid a penalty of $115 million in 2018. It also paid $16 million to HIPAA for privacy rule violations. Healthcare employees often use public Wi-Fi to access ePHI records, which severely compromises HIPAA security protocols. The best preventive action is to use firewalls, updated antivirus software and encrypted passwords against hacking or other cyber attacks.
5- Lost or Stolen Devices
Healthcare employees often negligently lose portable devices containing PHI records, which is one of the most serious HIPAA security breach violations. If a lost or stolen device is misused by a culprit can cost millions of dollars worth of highly sensitive healthcare data. Healthcare practices should keep all devices secured with encrypted passwords and other theft deterrents. Limited device access is critical to protect sensitive healthcare information.
6- Lack of HIPAA Compliance Training
Healthcare businesses pay the least attention to HIPAA compliance training to avoid violations. Staff remain unaware of even basic compliance regulations, which results in recurring HIPAA violation examples. Mistakes are humanly possible, but in the healthcare industry, mishandling of patient information due to inadequate training is one of the most precarious mistakes. Healthcare practices should invest in HIPAA compliance education at the staff level to avoid violations.
7- Unauthorised Patient Data Sharing
Illegitimate sharing of a patient’s medical record with another employee or a third-party who has no legal access or an authorised requirement is a serious HIPAA violation. Unauthorised access of confidential health records exposes the covered entity to hefty penalties and other legal risks. The healthcare providers may be probed under civil or criminal statutes due to these violations. A Texas hospital case where an employee illegally accessed the health records of 596 patients for personal gain faced serious challenges. Conducting HIPAA audits regularly can protect your healthcare facility from unexpected results.
8- Easy to Breach Access Controls
Healthcare practices often pay less heed to protecting access controls to PHI. Weak passwords, no firewalls, no antivirus installations and poor encryption lead to hacking attacks through unauthorised access. The best preventive practice is to use strong passwords, enable multi-factor authentication, limit access permissions and promptly deactivate inactive accounts.
9- Improper Disposal of Patient Records
Staff often overlook proper patient healthcare record disposal, which leads to potential misuse activities. CDs containing patient sensitive data are often disposed of without leaving it unencrypted, which is a serious HIPAA security rule violation. The right approach is to properly shred paper records before throwing them into the trash bins, destroy hard drives and give proper disposal training to the healthcare staff. This is an effective way to control violations.
10- Failure to Update Business Agreements
Healthcare organisations often overlook upgrading the agreements with business associates such as vendors to ensure compliance. This negligence often results in healthcare data theft, breach incidents, and other cyber crimes. Verify all the vendors before onboarding, maintain all the business associate agreements from time to time, conduct audits of vendor compliance practices and keenly monitor third-party access.
What is the Common Misunderstanding?
Healthcare staff often face a critical question during training sessions, such as which statement is not true of HIPAA? There is a misconception that HIPAA policies are only applicable to healthcare practitioners and nurses. In reality, it is fairly applicable to billing staff, the administrative wing, healthcare planners and business associates because all these stakeholders have a certain percentage and type of patient information access. This access is largely on behalf of covered entities. Proper understanding of who controls how much data also helps healthcare organisations to strengthen compliance across all the departments.
In a Nutshell
In-depth understanding of HIPAA compliance protocols and privacy rules is not only effective for sensitive data protection but also allows healthcare practices to build trust with patients. This exclusive guide helps healthcare organisations set their direction in line with HIPAA compliance regulations to avoid violations and penalties. If you have any queries about HIPAA compliance rules, MDHelpTek provides the best consultancy. Let’s schedule your appointment.
