The penalties for not maintaining HIPAA compliance include civil monetary penalties, corrective action requirements imposed through resolution agreements, and criminal penalties for knowing misuse of individually identifiable health information. Enforcement actions may require organization-wide remediation measures such as revised policies and procedures, enhanced safeguards, monitoring, and reporting to regulators, in addition to financial payments.
Civil monetary penalties are assessed by the HHS Office for Civil Rights based on the nature and extent of the violation and the level of culpability, and the per-violation amounts are adjusted for inflation. The statutory penalty structure uses four categories that range from violations where the regulated entity did not know and would not have known through reasonable diligence, through violations caused by reasonable cause, through willful neglect that is timely corrected, through willful neglect that is not timely corrected. For inflation-adjusted amounts in effect for 2026 assessments, civil monetary penalties can range from $145 per violation to $2,190,294 per violation, and calendar-year caps apply for multiple violations of an identical requirement or prohibition.
Criminal penalties may apply when a person knowingly obtains or discloses individually identifiable health information in violation of the statute. The criminal penalty structure includes fines and imprisonment, with higher penalties tied to false pretenses and intent for commercial advantage, personal gain, or malicious harm. A knowing violation can carry a fine of up to $50,000 and imprisonment of up to one year, obtaining information under false pretenses can carry a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment of up to five years, and conduct involving commercial advantage, personal gain, or malicious harm can carry a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to ten years.
HIPAA staff training supports prevention of civil and criminal exposure by establishing workforce understanding of HIPAA rules and regulations before internal policies and procedures are addressed. All workforce members must receive HIPAA training if they have access to PHI, including workforce members who create, receive, maintain, transmit, or otherwise handle protected health information in any format. HIPAA staff training should be delivered during onboarding and reinforced through refreshers, with annual HIPAA training as industry best practice. Online training can be used to deliver comprehensive instruction on the HIPAA Privacy Rule, HIPAA Security Rule, HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, and the HIPAA Minimum Necessary Rule, including permissible uses and disclosures, safeguards for electronic and non-electronic protected health information, access and disclosure controls, and internal incident reporting expectations. The HIPAA Journal Training is online, comprehensive, and suitable for onboarding and annual refresher training, and training completion documentation supports compliance oversight and audit readiness.