Civil Money Penalty

HHS Imposes a $4.3 Million Civil Money Penalty for HIPAA Privacy Rule Violations

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a Notice of Final Determination finding that a covered entity, Cignet Health of Prince George’s County, MD (Cignet), violated the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).  HHS has imposed a civil money penalty (CMP) of $4.3 million for the violations, representing the first CMP issued by the Department for violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The CMP is based on the violation categories and increased penalty amounts authorized by Section 13410(d) of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

• Read the Notice of Final Determination 

• Read the Notice of Proposed Determination 

• Read the HHS Press Release

• For Information on OCR’s Enforcement Activities