The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act strengthened HIPAA enforcement by extending its Security Rule obligations directly to business associates, establishing a four-tier civil penalty structure with fines up to $1.9 million per violation category per year, and introducing a mandatory breach notification rule that requires notification to individuals, HHS, and media for breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. Zero Trust audit logging and access controls provide the evidence trail that organisations need to demonstrate compliance during OCR investigations and to contain breach scope — minimising both the number of records affected and the regulatory severity tier.
Related: HIPAA · PHI · Healthcare · EHR · SIEM