David Kibbe, director of the American Academy of Family Physicians' Center for Health Information Technology, said the results of the survey didn't surprise him. Family physicians are doing what they can to comply with HIPAA given all the other things they have to do, he said, but the lack of government enforcement removes the urgency to comply."If you knew a security breach in your family medical practice was going to cost you $150,000, you might see more concern," Kibbe said. "But there has been so little enforcement and so little outreach on the part of the federal government that it has been difficult for family physicians and others in small and medium-size practices to take this seriously."
What are the numbers? The survey quoted in the article linked says "...74% of payer-respondents said they were in compliance (up from a January survey total of 30%) compared with 43% of provider-respondents (up from 18% in January)."
Why is this?
In fact, when asked to rank their biggest obstacles to HIPAA compliance, respondents placed "no public relations or branding problems anticipated with noncompliance" and "no anticipated legal consequences to noncompliance" at the top of the list.
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