Read More, Presence Health, one of the largest healthcare networks serving residents of Illinois, has agreed to pay OCR $475,000 to settle potential HIPAA Breach Notification Rule violations. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures. Covered Entity: Pharmacy Chain Upon learning of the incident, the hospital placed both employees on leave; the orderly resigned his employment shortly thereafter. Covered Entity: General Hospitals OCR determined the lack of encryption was in violation of the HIPAA Security Rule, there were insufficient device and media controls, and a business associate agreement had not been entered into with its parent company. OCR investigated and discovered similar privacy violations had occurred responding to patient reviews. Read More, Great Expressions Dental Center of Georgia, P.C. The firewall was inactive for a period of 10 months leaving the data exposed and potentially accessible to unauthorized third parties for an unacceptable period of time. Covered Entity: Pharmacies As HIPAA violations are so severe, and may result in huge fines for Covered Entities, if . At the direction of an insurance company that had requested an independent medical exam of an individual, a private medical practice denied the individual a copy of the medical records. Issue: Safeguards. An OCR investigation also indicated that the confidential communications requirements were not followed, as the employee left the message at the patients home telephone number, despite the patients instructions to contact her through her work number. 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. The records were provided within days of OCR intervening. Read More, Mountlake Terrace, WA-based Premera Blue Cross is the largest health plan in the Pacific Northwest. The cost-of-living adjustment multiplier for 2023 is 1.07745, but this has not officially been applied by the HHS. The settlement stems from an impermissible disclosure in a press release issued by MHHS in September 2015. By 2011, the UCLA Health System would agree to pay a fine of $865,000 to settle HIPAA privacy violations at its three hospitals. Issue: Safeguards, Minimum Necessary. In addition to corrective action taken under the Privacy Rule, the state attorney general's office entered into a monetary settlement agreement with the patient. The nonprofit teaching hospital has also agreed to adopt the OCRs corrective action plan to address HIPAA-compliance issues discovered by OCR investigators. The case was settled with OCR and a 23,000 financial penalty was imposed. An outpatient surgical facility disclosed a patient's protected health information (PHI) to a research entity for recruitment purposes without the patient's authorization or an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or privacy-board-approved waiver of authorization. Covered Entity: Outpatient Facility However, the investigation revealed that the pharmacy chain and the law firm had not entered into a Business Associate Agreement, as required by the Privacy Rule to ensure that PHI is appropriately safeguarded. All rights reserved. Issue: Access, Restrictions. OCR also discovered a business associate failure. Read More, CHSPSC LLC isa Tennessee-based management companythat provides services to affiliates of Community Health Systems. The practice trained all staff on the newly developed policies and procedures. To resolve this matter, the covered entity refunded the $100.00 records review fee., Hospital Issues Guidelines Regarding Disclosures to Avert Threats to Health or Safety Covered Entity: Private Practice While the Privacy Rule may permit the disclosure of an OR schedule containing PHI, in this case, a hospital employee shared the OR scheduled with the complainants supervisor, who was not part of the employee's treatment team, and did not need the information for payment, health care operations, or other permissible purposes. Improper Disposal HIPAA rules state medical professionals must dispose of PHI in a secure manner. A was charged with violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and with "conspiracy to wrongfully disclose individual health information for personal gain with maliciously harmful intent in a personal dispute." Her husband was charged with witness tampering. Maybe PHI was in the background unknowingly. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, including mitigation of harm to the complainant, OCR required the Center to revise its procedures regarding patient authorization prior to release of protected health information to an employer. Covered Entity: Health Plans According to the Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 112, Section 77, the Board must report disciplinary actions to national data reporting systems. The local newspaper then featured on its front page the individuals x-ray and an article that included the date of the accident, the location of the accident, the patients gender, a description of patients medical condition, and numerous quotes from the hospital about such unusual sporting accidents. The. OCR settled the case for $240,000. The case was settled for $1,250,000. An OCR investigation confirmed allegations that a dental practice flagged some of its medical records with a red sticker with the word "AIDS" on the outside cover, and that records were handled so that other patients and staff without need to know could read the sticker. Honolulu-based Hawaii Pacific Health fired an employee in March after discovering the employee had inappropriately accessed patient medical records between November 2014 and January 2020. Another way to prevent HIPAA violations on social media is to get proper compliance training for your staff. Read more, The Diabetes, Endocrinology & Lipidology Center, Inc, a West Virginia-based healthcare provider specializing in treating endocrine disorders, failed to provide a parent with a copy of her minor childs protected health information within 30 days. 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(B). 3. Fines for "reasonable cause" violations range from $100 to $50,000. Read More, Skagit County, Washington is paying the price for failing to implement the appropriate controls and safeguards to protect the data it held. Disciplinary actions are part of the public record. Covered Entity: General Hospital Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has fined New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) $2.2 million for allowing patients to be filmed for a TV show without obtaining prior permission from patients. CHMC settled the HIPAA Right of Access case with OCR and paid an $80,000 penalty. Read More, An investigation of five separate breaches at HIPAA-covered entities owned by Fresenius Medical Care North America revealed multiple HIPAA violations had contributed to the breaches. Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN) has agreed to pay OCR $400,000 and adopt a robust corrective action plan to resolve all HIPAA compliance issues identified during the OCR investigation. A violation that occurred despite reasonable vigilance can attract a fine of $1,000 $50,000. Dr. Glazer did not cooperate with OCR during the investigation, resulting in OCR imposing a civil monetary penalty of $100,000 for the HIPAA Right of Access violation. Criminal violations of HIPAA Rules are dealt with by the U.S. Department of Justice. OCR investigated the breach and discovered multiple violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Private Practice Revises Policies and Procedures Addressing Activities Preparatory to Research OCR determined there had been a failure to protect patient information which resulted in an impermissible disclosure of 2,150 patient records. OCR determined there had been risk analysis failures, insufficient reviews of system activity, a failure to respond adequately to a detected breach, and insufficient technical controls to prevent unauthorized ePHI access. Delivered via email so please ensure you enter your email address correctly. National Pharmacy Chain Extends Protections for PHI on Insurance Cards In fact, even a competent healthcare facility will experience minor HIPAA violation cases at some point. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, the pharmacy revised its policies regarding PHI and retrained its staff. The Center did not, however, provide the complainant with the opportunity to have the denial reviewed, as required by the Privacy Rule. The case was settled for $200,000. HIPAA Journal provides the most comprehensive coverage of HIPAA news anywhere online, in addition to independent advice about HIPAA compliance and the best practices to adopt to avoid data breaches, HIPAA violations and regulatory fines. The 2020 increase is largely due to OCRs HIPAA Right of Access enforcement initiative, which was launched in late 2019. District of Ohio dismissed her case. Read More, Danbury Psychiatric Consultants in Massachusetts received a request for medical records on March 24, 2020, but access to the records was refused due to an outstanding bill. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required that the pharmacy chain implement national policies and procedures to safeguard the log books. The case was settled for $15,000. Read More, OCR investigated a complaint from a mother who requested a copy of her sons medical records from St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center but had not been provided with a complete set of the records. The Center for Childrens Digestive Health (CCDH); a small 7-center pediatric subspecialty practice based in Park Ridge, Illinois has agreed to pay OCR $31,000 to resolve potential HIPAA violations. When notified of the complaint filed with OCR, the dental practice immediately removed the red AIDS sticker from the complainant's file. Read More, OCR launched an investigation of University of Rochester Medical Center following receipt of two breach reports concerning lost/stolen portable devices containing ePHI a flash drive and a laptop computer. Corinne S Kennedy. Read more, Ridgewood, NJ-based Village Plastic Surgeryfailed to provide a patient with timely access to the requested medical records. The revised policy was implemented in the chains' stores nationwide. Between October 23, 2009, and March 7, 2010 part of its database of policyholders was accessible to unauthorized individuals. OCR provided technical assistance to the covered entity regarding the requirement that covered entities seeking to disclose PHI for research recruitment purposes must obtain either a valid patient authorization or an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or privacy-board-approved alteration to or waiver of authorization. Another potential HIPAA violation that's easily overlooked is discussing information over the phone. Covered Entity: Health Plans Skagit County agreed to pay OCR $215,000 following the exposure of data of seven individuals. Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has announced it has reached a settlement with North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota over alleged HIPAA violations from a 2011 data breach. If a nurse breaches HIPAA, a patient cannot sue the nurse directly for a HIPAA breach. In 2015, Premera discovered there had been a breach of the ePHI of 10,466,692 individuals. Nope. Nurses HIPAA Violation Examples The list of potential HIPAA violations by nurses is long so the most commonly experienced nurse HIPAA violations are listed below: Outpatient Surgical Facility Corrects Privacy Procedure in Research Recruitment Read More, Complete P.T., Pool & Land Physical Therapy, Inc., (CPT) has agreed to pay a fine of $25,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services after the company posted photographs and names of patients on the client testimonial section of its website without first having obtained HIPAA-compliant authorizations from the patients in question. It did not change the maximum penalty for a violation, which means that the maximum penalty for a tier 1 violation is higher than the annual penalty cap, but for as long as the notice of enforcement discretion is in effect, the maximum penalty per year applies. Violating HIPAA law can result in fines, job termination, loss of licensure, and criminal charges. But it's vital. But violations are also quite serious. The trial court noted that HIPAA does not create a private right of action, but instead requires that violations be pursued via administrative channels (ie: by filing a complaint with HHS). A settlement of $1,700,000 has been agreed upon with OCR to resolve the HIPAA violations that contributed to the cause of the breach. A complaint alleged that an HMO impermissibly disclosed a members PHI, when it sent her entire medical record to a disability insurance company without her authorization. Read More, OCR has just announced it has agreed to the largest ever HIPAA settlement with a single covered entity. The previous record was the $3.5 million settlement with Triple S Management Corporation agreed in November 2015. The case was settled for $38,000. OCR intervened but received a second complaint a month later when the records had still not been provided. > Case Examples The case was settled for $2.175 million. OCR investigated and found multiple violations of the HIPAA Rules including a delayed response to a known security breach, risk analysis and risk management failures, and a lack of procedures to monitor information system activity logs. Read More, Athens Orthopedic Clinic PA in Georgia had its systems hacked in 2016. Read More, MelroseWakefield Healthcare in Massachusetts received a valid request from a personal representative of a patient on June 12, 2020, but it took until October 20, 2020, for the requested records to be provided due to an error regarding the legality of the durable power of attorney. OCR Imposes a $2.15 Million Civil Money Penalty against Jackson Health System for HIPAA Violations - October 23, 2019 Dental Practice Pays $10,000 to Settle Social Media Disclosures of Patients' Protected Health Information - October 2, 2019 OCR Settles First Case in HIPAA Right of Access Initiative - September 9, 2019 Read More, Parkview Healthcare System has agreed to pay an $800,000 settlement for a violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. 6) Keep Thoughts to Yourself. Read More, OCR imposed a $2.154 million civil monetary penalty against the Miami, FL-based nonprofit academic medical system, Jackson Health System (JHS), for a slew of violations of HIPAA Privacy Rule, Security Rule, and Breach Notification Rule. The penalties for a HIPAA violation are determined by the CE; HIPAA itself does not explicitly state what types of HIPAA violations will and will not result in the loss of a job. Office for Civil Rights Headquarters. OCR conducted an investigation into an incident involving a stolen laptop that contained the ePHI of 20,431 patients. A complaint alleged that a law firm working on behalf of a pharmacy chain in an administrative proceeding impermissibly disclosed the PHI of a customer of the pharmacy chain. To resolve the matter, OCR required the pharmacy chain and the law firm to enter into a business associate agreement. Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has sent another warning to HIPAA-covered entities about the need to obtain signed, HIPAA-compliant business associate agreements with all vendors prior to disclosing any protected health information. A violation of HIPAA attributable to ignorance can attract a fine of $100 $50,000. Issue: Conditioning Compliance with the Privacy Rule. An employee at a mid-size clinic was involved in a suit when an auto collision victim sued her spouse. The investigation confirmed there had been a HIPAA Right of Access failure. Read More, ACPM Podiatry in Illinois did not provide a former patient with his requested records, and despite the intervention of OCR, the patient was still not provided with the requested records due to the non-payment of a bill by the insurance company. > HIPAA Compliance and Enforcement All staff was trained on the revised procedures. I personally would not expect a student to fully understand these things; correction and education would be in order rather than exaggerating the offenses to the level of HIPAA violation. So-mogye v. Toledo Clinic, 2012 WL 2191279 (N.D. Ohio, June 14, 2012). Covered Entity: Pharmacies OCR provided technical assistance and closed the case, but the records were still not provided. Read More, Boston Medical Center was fined for allowing an ABC film crew to record footage of patients as part of the Boston Med TV series, without first obtaining consent from patients. OCR settled the case for $55,000. Covered Entity: Health Care Provider OCRs investigation revealed that: the hospital distributed an Operating Room (OR) schedule to employees via email; the hospitals OR schedule contained information about the complainants upcoming surgery. The revised policies are applicable to all individual stores in the pharmacy chain. OCRs investigation revealed that the radiology practice had relied upon incorrect billing information from the treating hospital in submitting the claim. Talking about a patient in a public area where others can hear you is a HIPAA violation. A physician practice requested that patients sign an agreement entitled Consent and Mutual Agreement to Maintain Privacy. The agreement prohibited the patient from directly or indirectly publishing or airing commentary about the physician, his expertise, and/or treatment in exchange for the physicians compliance with the Privacy Rule. The case was settled for $62,500. The case was settled with OCR for $300,640. Issue: Impermissible Use. Radiologist Revises Process for Workers Compensation Disclosures An employee of a major health insurer impermissibly disclosed the protected health information of one of its members without following the insurer's authorization and verification procedures. Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has agreed to a $650,000 settlement with University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). Read More, Hillcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation in Massachusetts received a request from a parent for her sons medical records onMarch 22, 2020, but the records were not provided until October 10, 2020. The case was settled for $2,300,000. Nurses who deliberately obtain or disclose individually identifiable protected health information can face a fine of up to $50,000 and a maximum of 12 months in jail. A patient alleged that a general hospital disclosed protected health information when a hospital staff person left a message on the patients home phone answering machine, thereby failing to accommodate the patients request that communications of PHI be made only through her mobile or work phones. If an offense is committed under false pretenses, the criminal penalties increase to a maximum . OCR found that the owner of the practice had responded to several reviews and disclosed ePHI, even disclosing the names of patients in the responses who had chosen to post reviews anonymously. The investigation revealed a failure to conduct an accurate risk analysis, noncompliance with the security incident response and reporting requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule, the failure to conduct an evaluation following changes that affected the security of ePHI, a lack of audit controls, breach notification delays, and the impermissible disclosure of the PHI of 279,865 individuals. Covered Entity: Mental Health Center The above penalties were implemented as demanded by the HITECH Act of 2009 and increase annually in line with inflation. Read more, San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare, dba Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Centers, failed to provide a patients medical records to a patient-specified third party for more than 2 months. Private Practice Provides Access to All Records, Regardless of Source OCR investigated the allegation and found no evidence that the law firm had impermissibly disclosed the customers PHI. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required the provider to develop and implement policies and procedures regarding appropriate administrative and physical safeguards related to the communication of PHI. MIE also settled a multi-state action with state attorneys general and paid a penalty of $900,000. The hospital asserted that the disclosures were made to avert a serious threat to health or safety; however, OCRs investigation indicated that the disclosures did not meet the Privacy Rules standard for such actions. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures. Private Practice Revises Access Procedure to Provide Access Despite an Outstanding Balance Under the Notice of Enforcement Discretion, the maximum annual penalty for a violation could be capped at $25,000 for tier 1, $100,000 for tier 2, and $250,000 for tier 3. In response to OCRs investigation, the mental health center acknowledged that it had not provided the complainant and his daughter with a notice prior to her mental health evaluation. The failure to cooperate with the investigation and respond to an administrative subpoena resulted in a civil monetary penalty of $50,000. A violation due to willful neglect which is corrected within thirty days will attract a fine of between $10,000 and $50,000. Even though it is not done maliciously. The records were provided on September 14, 2020. Read More, Family Dental Care, P.C. Read More, Anchorage Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS) runs five mental health facilities in Alaska and is a non-profit organization. The HIPAA Right of Access violation was settled with OCR for $30,000. In 2016, 12 entities agreed to settle their compliance investigations and pay a financial penalty, with one case seeing civil monetary penalties imposed. Comments and replies to someone else's post, chat room gossip (even if it's a private room) or leaving a review on a site like Yelp opens the door for potential HIPAA violations. HIPAA Violations: Nurse Looked At Her Mother's, Sister's Charts, Termination Upheld. A nurse at a Texas children's hospital has been fired for violating Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules by posting protected health information on a social media website. Pharmacy Chain Revises Process for Disclosures to Law Enforcement OCR discovered a risk analysis failure, the lack of a security awareness training program, and a failure to implement HIPAA Security Rule policies and procedures. Settlements have previously been agreed upon with healthcare providers, health plans, and business associates of covered entities, but this is the first time OCR has settled potential HIPAA violations with a wireless health services provider. OCR determined this breached the HIPAA Right of Access provision of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. As of July 2022, there have been 38 HIPAA Right of Access cases under this compliance initiative that resulted in financial penalties. The case was settled for $160,000. Issue: Access, A patient alleged that a covered entity failed to provide him access to his medical records. The private practice maintained that the disclosure to the contract research organization was permissible as a review preparatory to research. 4 . The HIPAA Right of Access violation was settled with OCR for $30,000. The case was ultimately unsuccessful; the court ruled in favor of the nurse. To resolve this matter, OCR also required the practice to revise the office's fax cover page to underscore a confidential communication for the intended recipient. CHCS will also pay a financial penalty of $650,000. OCR also determined there had been a risk analysis failure, a failure to implement Privacy Rule policies, and unique IDs had not been provided to all employees to track information system activity. Copyright 2014-2023 HIPAA Journal. In response, the hospital instituted a number of actions to achieve compliance with the Privacy Rule. The penalties for HIPAA violations through the OCR are as follows: Tier 1: Minimum fine of $100 per violation, up to $50,000 Tier 2: Minimum fine of $1,000 per violation, up to $50,000 Tier 3: Minimum fine of $10,000 per violation, up to $50,000 Tier 4: Minimum fine of $50,000 per violation Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has announced it has settled potential HIPAA violations with Feinstein Institute for Medical Research for $3.9 million. The case was settled for $3 million. Read More, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences experienced a hacking incident that was reported to OCR in January 2018. > All Case Examples, Hospital Implements New Minimum Necessary Polices for Telephone Messages Read More, OCR received a complaint from a patient of California-based Riverside Psychiatric Medical Group in March 2019 alleging he had not been provided with a copy of his medical records. That's almost an hour devoted to talking about someone else. The nurse in question sent out six text messages to warn the patient's girlfriend about his STD. The complainant alleged that a mental health center (the "Center") improperly provided her records to her auto insurance company and refused to provide her with a copy of her medical records. Background: Inappropriate use of social media necessitates health institutes, academic institutes, nurses and educators to consider occupational ethical principles while creating a policy and guide on the usage of social media. Read More, King MD is a small provider of psychiatric services in Virginia. This was OCRs first settlement under the 2019 HIPAA Right of Access enforcement initiative. Among other actions taken to satisfactorily resolve this matter, the hospital took further disciplinary action with the nurse, which included: documenting the employee record with a memo of the incident; one year probation; referral for peer review; and further training on HIPAA Privacy. Read More, QCA Health Plan, Inc. of Arkansas reported the theft of a laptop from a car that contained unencrypted data on 148 patients. Read More, A $2.5 million settlement has been agreed upon with CardioNet to resolve potential HIPAA violations. A doctor's office disclosed a patient's HIV status when the office mistakenly faxed medical records to the patient's place of employment instead of to the patient's new health care provider. The minimum fine is $100 per violation (up to $50,000) for Category 1 violations. Allergy Associates of Hartford paid OCR $125,000 to settle the alleged HIPAA violations. Read more, Rainrock Treatment Center LLC (dba Monte Nido Rainrock), a Eugene, OR-based provider of residential eating disorder treatment services, failed to provide a patient with timely access to the requested medical records after repeated requests. A hospital employee's supervisor accessed, examined, and disclosed an employee's medical record. HIPAA violations are not uncommon. Physician Revises Faxing Procedures to Safeguard PHI A radiology practice that interpreted a hospital patients imaging tests submitted a workers compensation claim to the patients employer. Read More, OCR announced that it has reached a settlement for $125,000 with a Denver-based healthcare provider, Cornell Pharmacy, following the improper disposal of patient health records. renewals of licenses or APRN authorizations, or both. A pharmacy employee placed a customer's insurance card in another customer's prescription bag. Receive weekly HIPAA news directly via email, HIPAA News Under the revised process, if a subpoena is received that does not meet the requirements of the Privacy Rule, the information is not disclosed; instead, the hospital contacts the party seeking the subpoena and the requirements of the Privacy Rule are explained. Covered Entity: Private Practices HHS Among other corrective action taken to resolve this issue, the Center provided the complainant with a copy of her records. OCR issued a written analysis and a demand for compliance. Read More, After the permanent closure of the company, paperwork containing former patients PHI was discarded by FileFax. State Hospital Sanctions Employees for Disclosing Patient's PHI Initially, the pharmacy chain refused to acknowledge that the log books contained protected health information.
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