Social Media & HIPAA: Compliant Social Media Tips for Your Practice

February 15, 2024

Picture this: you’re a doctor, feeling proud after helping a patient overcome a challenge. You snap a selfie with them, post it on your clinic’s Instagram, and bam! Instant HIPAA violation.

We’ve seen how social media is about more than just staying connected with friends and family. It’s become a powerful tool for reaching new audiences and having meaningful interactions with other users.

If used correctly, social media can be an awesome tool to educate and share the resources your practice provides easily to patients.

However, it is important to use social media wisely and know how crucial it is to protect patient information. Social media can be a slippery slope to HIPAA violations if misused. That’s why we’re here today to share with you the best tips and practices for your social media.

The Less Information, The Better

Under the Privacy Rule, sharing Protected Health Information publicly online is prohibited. This includes the likeness and image of a patient, which cannot be shared without a media consent form.
This affects all communication online, including reviews online.
- When responding to feedback online, the less information, the better. Keep it brief and kind, and be sure to not say anything identifiable!
- For example, thanking someone’s nice comments about your practice is totally acceptable, but going into detail about a specific appointment is a no-go!
If patients turn to social media to ask specific questions about their care, direct them to a secure channel instead. You’ll be able to answer their questions, while also protecting their data. Now, that’s a win-win!

Double Check Before Posting

While this is good practice for all social media posts, it rings especially true in healthcare.
When sharing photos of your practice, make sure no patients are in the frame since, without permission, would be a HIPAA violation.
Additionally, if sharing pictures of your practice, make sure no PHI is accidentally on computer screens, files, etc. in your image.
When answering responses, take a second to reflect if your response is appropriate and HIPAA compliant, especially if it’s in response to a negative review. No review is worth getting your practice in trouble for, and as the saying goes, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.

Have Media Consent Forms Signed

When using a patient’s likeness, image, or testimonial, it is imperative to have them sign a media consent form.
By having this form signed, you can share these in a HIPAA-compliant manner.
Abyde can help you with this, by having a media consent form created for your practice in the software.

While your journey to be famous online might not be as easy as cute cat videos, by prioritizing HIPAA compliance on social media, you can confidently utilize technology to engage with audiences without compromising their privacy.

Social media can be complicated, but compliance doesn’t have to be with Abyde. Abyde offers a thorough security risk analysis that dives into not only social media use but all facets of your practice. Abyde also has interactive training, policies and procedures, forms, and more, for your practice to utilize. To learn more about simplifying compliance for your practice, email us at info@abyde.com and schedule a demo here.

What Every Dental Practice Can Learn From the $140K Shen Smiles Settlement

October 9, 2026 Penelope Schweitzer No comments yet

October 9, 2026 The latest HIPAA settlement doesn’t involve a hospital system or a massive ransomware attack. It involves a practice that probably looks a lot like yours. Shen Smiles is a solo dental practice in Drums, Pennsylvania. It started with a former patient’s complaint about getting their health records. It led to a broader OCR investigation and a $140,000 settlement. The lesson? Every HIPAA-regulated organization, big or small, can face enforcement. What happened? Under federal law, patients must be given access to their records within 30 days, with one possible 30-day extension if the patient is notified in writing within the first 30 days. In April 2020, a former patient’s attorney filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The complaint alleged that the patient had requested their records multiple times without receiving access. The public documents don’t say when the first request was made. OCR’s investigation went beyond the original complaint. According to the resolution agreement, OCR found that patient records weren’t properly maintained and that staff hadn’t received formal HIPAA Privacy Rule training. OCR also said the practice couldn’t produce evidence that it had HIPAA policies and procedures in place, including for patient access requests, or that it had reasonably safeguarded patient information. During the investigation, the practice stated that it couldn’t provide the records because a workforce member had stolen them. The public documents don’t address whether a breach assessment was done. As a general rule, though, HIPAA presumes that an impermissible acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of unsecured patient information is a breach. A breach can require notifying HHS and affected patients, including steps patients can take to protect themselves. These are baseline requirements every covered entity is expected to have in place. Policies and training give a team a HIPAA playbook. Without one, staff at any practice may not know what to do when a patient asks for records or records go missing. OCR proposed a $140,000 civil money penalty in July 2024. Shen Smiles requested a hearing before an administrative law judge, but the two sides reached a resolution agreement in August 2026, before the hearing took place. Under the agreement, the practice agreed to pay $140,000. The agreement is not an admission of liability. The Takeaway for Practices Patient access has been an OCR priority for years through its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, and this case marks its 56th Right of Access enforcement action. It also took more than six years from complaint to resolution. As this case shows, a single complaint can lead to a broader look at your compliance program. Now is the time to ask: Do we have written HIPAA policies our team can find? Do we have a process to answer every record request within 30 days? Can we prove every team member has completed HIPAA training? If any of those gave you pause, now’s the time to fix it, before OCR comes asking. Looking for the first step? Meet with one of our compliance experts to see where you currently stand.

Abyde News, Fines, HIPAA

$700K HIPAA Settlement: What the Ambry Genetics Phishing Breach Teaches Every Practice

September 21, 2026 Penelope Schweitzer No comments yet

September 21, 2026 The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced its biggest HIPAA settlement of the year, reaching nearly a million dollars. Ambry, a genetic testing and clinical genomics provider based in Aliso Viejo, California is at the center of this enforcement. A settlement was reached over a 2020 phishing attack that exposed the Protected Health Information (PHI) of more than 225,000 individuals. This settlement is a clear reminder that even large organizations trip up on HIPAA requirements. What happened In January 2020, an employee email account at Ambry was compromised through a phishing attack. The breach potentially exposed a wide range of PHI, including names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, financial details, and more. Ambry reported the breach to OCR in March 2020, which kicked off the investigation. Where OCR found gaps OCR’s investigation identified several HIPAA Security Rule gaps, including: No accurate, thorough risk analysis of risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI No process for cutting off access to ePHI when an employee left or no longer needed access No unique user IDs for tracking who was accessing ePHI systems These are baseline HIPAA requirements that every Covered Entity and Business Associate is expected to have in place. The settlement terms Ambry paid $700,000 and agreed to a two-year corrective action plan, under which it must: Complete a thorough risk analysis of ePHI confidentiality, integrity, and availability Build and execute a risk management plan addressing what that analysis turns up Review and update Security Rule policies and procedures as needed Implement unique user identification across all ePHI systems Train the whole workforce on those updated policies The takeaway for practices When 90% of healthcare hacks start with a successful phishing attempt, it’s key your team is aware of the role they play to keep data safe. Every practice should ask; Do we know exactly where our ePHI lives and how it moves through our systems? Do we have a current, documented risk analysis? Would we catch it fast if a former employee’s access wasn’t revoked? Looking for the first step of addressing these gaps? Meet with one of our compliance experts to see where you currently stand.

Abyde News, Fines, HIPAA

Right of Access Enforcement Hits Eye Care: Inside the Azul Vision Settlement

September 1, 2026 Penelope Schweitzer No comments yet

September 1, 2026 The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its 55th settlement under the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, and this one is a good reminder that “we’ll get to it” is an easy shortcut to a massive financial penalty. What happened Azul Vision, Inc., a California optometry enterprise healthcare provider, took nearly two years to provide a patient her healthcare records failed to give a patient timely access to her health records. She requested her records in January 2023. She didn’t actually receive them until January 2025, or two years later, and only after OCR opened an investigation following her complaint in April 2023. The importance of Right of Access The HIPAA Privacy Rule’s Right of Access is straightforward: patients are entitled to their healthcare records within 30 days of a request, with one possible 30-day extension if needed. The cost Azul Vision agreed to a two-year, OCR-monitored corrective action plan and paid $50,000. The corrective action plan requires the practice to: Review and revise its written policies and procedures for Privacy Rule compliance. Regularly report to HHS a log of every PHI access request it receives, including when it came in and when it was resolved, Train all workforce members on right of access requirements and the practice’s own procedures. Practical takeaways Have a documented, assigned process for access requests: not an informal “someone will handle it” arrangement. Track every request against the 30-day (or extended 60-day) clock: If nothing is timestamping requests, nothing is catching the ones that slip. Train staff specifically on right of access: this is a distinct Privacy Rule obligation from general HIPAA awareness, and it’s clearly one OCR is actively enforcing. The bottom line A single records request that went unanswered turned into a $50,000 penalty, two years of federal monitoring, and a detrimental hit to the organization’s reputation. That’s a steep price for what really comes down to a missing process. If your team can’t answer “what happens the moment a patient asks for their records?” right now, that’s the gap to close before your practice ends up as OCR’s next enforcement case. Want a streamlined way to close your compliance gaps? Meet with an Abyde expert today!

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