Yet, at the end of the day there’s no such thing as Johnny the HIPAA agent who’s going to knock on your door and hand you a ticket for not protecting patients’ health information. As a result most practices pay little to no attention to HIPAA compliance as it relates to technology. The reality of the matter is, HIPAA isn’t something you’re going to feel until after you’re caught out in the open when you suffered a breach. Only then, when the prosecutor’s pen is bearing down on your file is it going to suddenly become painfully relevant to your practice. HIPAA compliance means when it hits the fan that you are far less likely to be held directly responsible for a breach of protected health information when a hacker, natural disaster, robbery, accidental dispersal of PHI etc occurs.