This month we look at a case involving a HIPAA privacy violation. This case is particularly important (and unusual) because it illustrates two points: 1) a person can get jail time for a HIPAA violation (even a misdemeanor violation), and 2) ignorance of the law does not protect you. Dr. H was in his mid-40’s when [...]
Protections for private patient data and mandatory public reporting of breaches of data confidentiality were established by the 1999 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Between 2010 and 2013, data breaches involving at least 29.1 million patient records were reported. The ongoing transition to [...]
September 21, 2018 – Rita Luthra, a Springfield, MA-based gynecologist, was sentenced Sept. 19 to one-year probation for a criminal HIPAA violation and obstruction of a criminal healthcare investigation. In April, a jury convicted her of allowing a pharmaceutical sales representative to access patient records and lying to federal investigators. In May, US District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni denied a motion by Luthra’s [...]
Can a patient sue for a HIPAA violation? There is no private cause of action in HIPAA, so it is not possible for a patient to sue for a HIPAA violation. Even if HIPAA Rules have clearly been violated by a healthcare provider, and harm has been suffered as a direct result, it is not possible [...]
September 20, 2018 – OCR announced Sept. 20 that it has fined three Boston-area hospitals close to $1 million for HIPAA violations involving the filming of ABC’s TV series “Save My Life: Boston Trauma.”* OCR reached HIPAA settlements with Boston Medical Center (BMC), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for compromising patients’ PHI when they invited [...]
September 24, 2018 – UMass Memorial healthcare entities have agreed to pay $230,000 to the state of Massachusetts to resolve claims that two separate healthcare data breaches exposed PHI of more than 15,000 state residents. The lawsuit by the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) alleged that healthcare facilities received complaints about two employees accessing patients PHI to open cell phone and [...]
