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. The HIPAA Right of Access violation was settled with OR for $75,000. A study found that the average person spends about 52 minutes per day engaging in this type of conversation. Read More, Washington, NC-based Metropolitan Community Health Services is a Federally Qualified Health Center. Read More, OCR received a complaint from a patient of Dr. Rajendra Bhayani, a Regal Park, NY-based private practitioner specializing in otolaryngology, alleging he had not provided a patient with a copy of her medical records. Read More, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences experienced a hacking incident that was reported to OCR in January 2018. OCR settled the case for $50,000. Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has taken action against a Denver, CO-based federally-qualified health center (FQHC) for security management process failures that contributed to the organization experiencing a data breach in 2011. Nurse Faced with Jail Time for Violating HIPAA Laws Without appropriate HIPAA training, this case of a HIPAA violation demonstrates how critical it is to train workers before there is an issue. The nonprofit teaching hospital has also agreed to adopt the OCRs corrective action plan to address HIPAA-compliance issues discovered by OCR investigators. Radiologist Revises Process for Workers Compensation Disclosures In August 2012, Cancer Care Group discovered a laptop computer and unencrypted backup drive had been stolen from the vehicle of an employee. The directory contained files that included the protected health information (PHI) of 307,839 individuals. A hospital employee's supervisor accessed, examined, and disclosed an employee's medical record. Issue: Impermissible Disclosure-Research. the practice settled the case with OCR for $80,000. Corinne S Kennedy. Between 2005 and 2019, healthcare data breaches affected nearly 250 million people. The patient filed a complaint with OCR and the records were eventually provided more than 10 months later. The Center provided OCR with a valid authorization, signed by the complainant, permitting the release of information to the auto insurance company. TTD Number: 1-800-537-7697, Content created by Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, has sub items, about Compliance & Enforcement, has sub items, about Covered Entities & Business Associates, Other Administrative Simplification Rules. OCR received a complaint from a patient who had not been provided with her medical records after a 2-month wait. A hospital employee did not observe minimum necessary requirements when she left a telephone message with the daughter of a patient that detailed both her medical condition and treatment plan. Contrary to the Privacy Rule protections for information sought for administrative or judicial proceedings, the hospital failed to determine that reasonable efforts had been made to insure that the individual whose PHI was being sought received notice of the request and/or failed to receive satisfactory assurance that the party seeking the information made reasonable efforts to secure a qualified protective order. Disciplinary actions are part of the public record. Memorial Hermann Health System has agreed to pay OCR $2,400,000. Memorial Healthcare Systems has paid the penalty for non-compliance with HIPAA Rules, and in addition to the $5.5 million settlement, a robust corrective action plan must be adopted to address all areas of non-compliance. A digital photocopier was returned to a leasing company, but the PHI stored on its hard drive had not been erased before the device was returned. OCR also identified issues with the notice of privacy practices and there was no HIPAA privacy officer. A public hospital, in response to a subpoena (not accompanied by a court order), impermissibly disclosed the protected health information (PHI) of one of its patients. Copyright 2014-2023 HIPAA Journal. The case was settled for $5,100,000. Read More, An investigation into Anthem Incs massive 78.8 million-record data breach of 2015 revealed multiple HIPAA violations. > HIPAA Compliance and Enforcement North Memorial has agreed to pay $1,550,000 to OCR to settle the HIPAA violation charges. A settlement of $85,000 was agreed upon to resolve the violation. OCR has increased its enforcement activities in recent years. Brigham and Womens Hospital agreed to settle the alleged HIPAA violations with OCR for $384,000. In some states, the amount of punitive damages awarded could far outweigh the maximum $1.5 million fine (per violation) that can be imposed by OCR. The HIPAA Right of Access violation was settled with OCR for $32,150. It took 8 months from the date of the first request for the records to be provided. The case was settled for $3 million. November 16, 2022. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Authorizations. 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. Covered Entity: Private Practice 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. Anthem agreed to a record-breaking settlement of $16,000,000 to resolve the case. The previous record was the $3.5 million settlement with Triple S Management Corporation agreed in November 2015. Activities considered preparatory to research include: preparing a research protocol; developing a research hypothesis; and identifying prospective research participants. Read More, Paradise Family Dental was investigated in response to a complaint that a parent had not been provided with a copy of her minor childs medical records, despite submitting multiple requests to the practice. Additionally, OCR required the covered entity to revise its Notice of Privacy Practices. To resolve this matter, OCR also required the practice to revise its policies and operating procedures and to move medical alert stickers to the inside cover of the records. OCR discovered risk analysis failures, risk management failures, a failure toconduct technical and non-technical evaluations following environmental or operational changes, and the disclosure of ePHI to a contractor without first entering into a business associate agreement. The nurse in question sent out six text messages to warn the patient's girlfriend about his STD. The Privacy Rule permits the imposition of a reasonable cost-based fee that includes only the cost of copying and postage and preparing an explanation or summary if agreed to by the individual. Lahey Hospital and Medical Center has agreed to pay $850,000 to settle the case without admission of liability. November 30, 2021 - New York-based Huntington Hospital began notifying 13,000 patients of a data breach that exposed protected health information (PHI) and resulted in a former . Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has announced it has arrived at a settlement with Care New England Health System (CNE) to resolve alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The diagnostic laboratory settled the case with OCR and paid a $16,500 financial penalty. OCR investigated and found multiple potential HIPAA violations such as the failure to conduct a thorough risk analysis, risk management failures, and insufficient mechanisms to identify suspicious network activity. Issue: Impermissible Use. Covered Entity: Private Practices A covered entitys obligation to comply with all requirements of the Privacy Rule cannot be conditioned on the patients silence. OCR determined there had been a risk analysis failure, access control failure, information system activity monitoring failure, and an impermissible disclosure of 6,617 patients ePHI. For example, texting or calling a coworker to ask about a shared patient's case would be a HIPAA violation. A violation of HIPAA attributable to ignorance can attract a fine of $100 $50,000. Resolution Agreements. Below are details of 47 incidents since 2012 in which workers at nursing homes and assisted-living centers shared photos or videos of residents on social media networks. After OCR intervened, the records were provided, but it took 22 months from the initial date of the request. Read more, Childrens Hospital & Medical Center (CHMC), a pediatric care provider in Omaha, Nebraska, received a request from a parent for access to her daughters medical records but only provided part of the requested information, despite repeated requests. The financial consequences of violating HIPAA depend on the level of negligence and if a breach has occurred the number of records potentially exposed by the breach and the risk posed by the unauthorized disclosure: The figures listed above represent the fines that can be imposed by OCR. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required the hospital to develop and implement a policy regarding disclosures related to serious threats to health and safety, and to train all members of the hospital staff on the new policy. 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. OCR also identified issues with the notice of privacy practices and a HIPAA privacy officer had not been appointed. CHMC settled the HIPAA Right of Access case with OCR and paid an $80,000 penalty. OCRs investigation revealed periodic technical and non-technical evaluations of operational changes affecting the security of their electronic PHI had not been performed, procedures had not been implemented to verify the identity of individuals accessing their ePHI, there was a lack of ePHI safeguards, and Aetna had violated the minimum necessary standard. 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 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. The case was settled with OCR and a 23,000 financial penalty was imposed. OCR received a complaint from a patient alleging BILHBS had not provided a copy of her fathers medical records. Read More, Cancer Care Group, an Indiana-based radiation oncology private physician practice, has agreed to settle with the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights for $750,000, for potential HIPAA violations relating to a 2012 data breach. The case was settled for $62,500. Regulatory Changes OCR required the covered entity to cease using the patient agreement that conditioned the entitys compliance with the Privacy Rule. In more servers cases, or where multiple violations have occurred, the nurse may lose their job. Read More, The Californian general dental practice, New Vision Dental, was investigated by OCR following reports about impermissible disclosures of patients protected health information on the review platform Yelp. Issue: Conditioning Compliance with the Privacy Rule. Scott Harris and the rest of our team at S J Harris Law will be ready to help you pursue any option available that allows you to keep your license and continue working, no matter what industry you are in. OCR also discovered a business associate failure. Criminal violations of HIPAA Rules are dealt with by the U.S. Department of Justice. 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). OCR intervened and closed the case but received a second complaint two months later when the records had still not been provided. Read more, Renown Health, a not-for-profit healthcare network in Northern Nevada, failed to provide a patients attorney with a copy of her medical and billing records within 30 days. Read more, The California-based psychiatric medical services provider failed to provide a patient with timely access to the requested medical records and charged an unreasonable fee when the records were eventually provided. 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. > Case Examples This discrepancy is expected to be addressed through further rulemaking to make the new penalty structure permanent. If not, the form is invalid and any information released to a third party would be in violation of HIPAA regulations. There are four different HIPAA violation classifications which rank the level of an organizations willful neglect, and four penalty tiers depending on factors such as the length of time a violation was allowed to continue after being discovered, the number of people affected by the violation, and the nature of data exposed. Washington, D.C. 20201 Toll Free Call Center: 1-800-368-1019 Criminal HIPAA violations and penalties fall under three tiers: Tier 1: Deliberately obtaining and disclosing PHI without authorization up to one year in jail and a $50,000 fine Tier 2: Obtaining PHI under false pretenses up to five years in jail and a $100,000 fine And when data breaches like this occur, it's usually because of a HIPAA violation. The minimum fines are $100 per violation for tier 1, $1,000 per violation for tier 2, $10,000 per violation for tier 3, and $50,000 per violation for tier 4. A violation due to willful neglect which is not corrected within thirty days will attract the maximum fine of $50,000. Private Practice Revises Process to Provide Access to Records Once the physician learned that he could not withhold access until payment was made, the physician provided the complainant a copy of her medical record. To sign up for updates or to access your subscriber preferences, please enter your contact information below. By 2011, the UCLA Health System would agree to pay a fine of $865,000 to settle HIPAA privacy violations at its three hospitals. A good example of this is a laptop that is stolen. Issue: Access, Restrictions. One addressed the issue of minimum necessary information in telephone message content. Some cases also can result in imprisonment up to one year for a standard violation and imprisonment for up to five years for a violation committed under false pretenses. The ePHI of 62,500 patients was exposed. Covered Entity: Health Care Provider A violation due to willful neglect which is corrected within thirty days will attract a fine of between $10,000 and $50,000. Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights announced a new HIPAA settlement to resolve violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Providence Health & Services. St. Joseph Health has agreed to pay OCR $2,140,500. The new procedures were incorporated into the standard staff privacy training, both as part of a refresher series and mandatory yearly compliance training. The claim included the patients test results. Read More, Massachusetts General Hospital 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. Read More, Exposure of ePHI as a direct result of the failure to conduct a comprehensive risk analysis and a security assessment on a server prior to using it to share files containing ePHI. But violations are also quite serious. Read More, Associated Retina Specialists in New York took 5 months to provide a patient with the requested medical records. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, a letter of reprimand was placed in the supervisor's personnel file and the supervisor received additional training about the Privacy Rule. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures. The data breach investigation revealed a substandard security management process and a catalog of HIPAA Security Rule violations. The consequences of violating HIPAA can be significant and it is important to note fines for a HIPAA violation can be applied by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) even if no breach of PHI has occurred. OCR settled the case for $55,000. The case was ultimately unsuccessful; the court ruled in favor of the nurse. Entity Rescinds Improper Charges for Medical Record Copies to Reflect Reasonable, Cost-Based Fees A mother requested a copy of her sons medical records, but the records had not been provided three months after submitting the request. The case was settled for $202,400. Case Examples. The Center did not, however, provide the complainant with the opportunity to have the denial reviewed, as required by the Privacy Rule. Hackers used a compromised username and password to gain access to a server that contained the protected health information (PHI) of 3.5 million individuals. Read More, Lifespan Health System Affiliated Covered Entity is a Rhode Island healthcare provider. A national health maintenance organization sent explanation of benefits (EOB) by mail to a complainant's unauthorized family member. Boston Medical Center agreed to settle the alleged HIPAA violations with OCR for $100,000. The new procedures were instituted in Medicaid offices and independent health care programs under the jurisdiction of the municipal social service agency. OCR determined that the private practice denied the individual access to records to which she was entitled by the Privacy Rule. Dentist Revises Process to Safeguard Medical Alert PHI Read More, Medical Informatics Engineering, an Indiana-based provider of electronic medical record software and services, experienced amajor data breachin 2015 at its NoMoreClipboard subsidiary. Examples of HIPAA Violations by Nurses Read More, An article published in the LA Times started a sequence of events that has now resulted in Shasta Regional Medical Center (SRMC) agreeing to a settlement of $275,000 for its violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. OCR clarified that an individual's health insurance card meets the statutory definition of PHI and, as such, needs to be safeguarded. 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.