Enforcement resources lacking to pursue increase in HIPAA violations

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act complaints and breaches increased from 2017 to 2021, but the agency in charge of auditing compliance said it doesn’t have the resources to handle the uptick, Healthcare Dive reports. The Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, received 39% more HIPAA complaints in 2021 than in 2017, and large breaches affecting 500 people or more increased 58% in that period, according to the agency’s annual report to Congress. But appropriations didn’t increase over that time, causing a “severe strain on OCR’s limited staff and resources.”