Despite many years working under the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, confidential patient information remains vulnerable to data breaches. So how can you improve your organization’s data security and HIPAA compliance?
Why does HIPAA compliance matter?
=In 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that every 10 seconds, 14 US citizens’ PHI (private health information) is compromised. This means almost 45 million patients’ data is stolen each year through data hacking or unauthorized healthcare provider disclosure.
The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) broadened HIPAA enforcement over the last five years, including increasing fines and penalties. The financial consequences of violating HIPAA depend on the level of negligence. If a breach has occurred, the number of health records potentially exposed by the breach and the risk posed by the unauthorized disclosure determine the severity of the violation. Fines include:
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HIPAA Violation
|
Fine
|
| Attributable to ignorance | $137 – $34,464 |
| Occurred despite reasonable vigilance | $1,379 – $68,928 |
| Willful neglect which is corrected within 30 days | $13,785 – $68,928 |
| Willful neglect not corrected within 30 days | $68,928 – $2,067,813 per violation category, per year |
How can healthcare organizations improve HIPAA compliance?
Even if you have HIPAA training and protocols in place, language barriers often introduce additional challenges and processes for your team to follow, stealing focus away from protecting patient data. Limited-English proficient (LEP) patients deserve the same information security as your English-speaking patients. Here are a few ways you can better support your LEP patients and maintain HIPAA compliance:
Choose an LSP with strong information security management
How does your language services provider (LSP) safeguard private information? Propio proved via a third-party audit that we preserve information privacy and security through a risk management process.
Work with interpreters trained through Propio’s contractor development model
Propio invests directly in the professional growth of its interpreter network through a structured contractor training model. This approach combines the flexibility of independent work with the quality standards typically seen in employee-based environments.
Our trained contractors:
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Receive ongoing education through structured training modules and skill refreshers designed to maintain accuracy, professionalism, and consistency across every interaction.
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Follow strict confidentiality protocols, keeping all interpreted information private and never retaining or sharing details after a session ends.
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Operate within secure technology environments, with systems and processes that safeguard participant data during phone, video, and on-site interpretation.
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Stay aligned with compliance standards, meeting expectations under HIPAA, CMS Section 1557, and other federal and state requirements through continuous Propio-led guidance.
Avoid free machine translation platforms
While it may be tempting to use free machine translation (MT) platforms to save time, public MT portals can lead to unintentional data leaks and privacy risks. Terms of use agreements may entitle the machine translation provider to store, modify, reproduce, and distribute submitted content, all violating HIPAA’s patient protections.
