Nurse Pleads Guilty to HIPAA Violation A licensed practical nurse who pled guilty to wrongfully disclosing a patient's health information for personal gain faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine or both. OCR determined this fee to be unreasonable and that there had been a 15-month delay in providing the patient with the requested records. Covered Entity: Outpatient Facility Read More, Office for Civil Rights has agreed to its largest-ever financial penalty for a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Acts Privacy and Security Rules. All Case Examples | HHS.gov The hospital also trained relevant staff members on the new procedures. 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. Read More, Office for Civil Rights has announced a settlement of $1,215,780 has been reached with Affinity Health Plan, Inc., to resolve potential HIPAA violations discovered during a breach investigation. Technical assistance had previously been provided by OCR, but devices had still not been encrypted. 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. The possibility of HIPAA lawsuits brought forth by patients and breach victims could change HIPAA enforcement. Memorial Hermann Health System has agreed to pay OCR $2,400,000. HMORevises Process to Obtain Valid Authorizations 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. Some of these were accidental. Health Sciences Center Revises Process to Prevent Unauthorized Disclosures to Employers The records were provided within days of OCR intervening. 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 private practice maintained that the disclosure to the contract research organization was permissible as a review preparatory to research. Read More, A $2.5 million settlement has been agreed upon with CardioNet to resolve potential HIPAA violations. Read More, OCR agreed to settle multiple alleged HIPAA violations with Cottage Health for $3,000,000. Here are the top five misconceptions about FERPA and HIPAA that I regularly address in my work with schools. 4 . Pharmacy Chain Revises Process for Disclosures to Law Enforcement Sentara Hospitals reported the breach to OCR as having impacted 8 individuals. 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. The revised policies are applicable to all individual stores in the pharmacy chain. 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. The Phoenix, Arizona-based non-profit health system, Banner Health, experienced a hacking incident that resulted in the impermissible disclosure of the PHI of 2.81 million individuals in 2016. OCR determined that the private practice denied the individual access to records to which she was entitled by the Privacy Rule. In April 2019, OCR reexamined the HITECH Act and determined the language had been misinterpreted and issued a Notice of Enforcement Discretion stating the maximum annual penalties in each penalty tier would be changed to reflect the seriousness of the violations. PDF HIPAA Violations: Nurse Looked At Her Mother's, Sister's Charts Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, the pharmacy revised its policies regarding PHI and retrained its staff. OCR also identified issues with the notice of privacy practices and a HIPAA privacy officer had not been appointed. What Is a HIPAA Violation? | Berxi The OCR investigation revealed a lack of business associate agreements, insufficient access rights, a risk analysis failure, a failure to respond to a security incident, a breach notification failure, media notification failure. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Safeguards. 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). Massachusetts General Hospital agreed to settle the alleged HIPAA violations with OCR for $515,000. Despite fluctuations in their nature, there. OCR intervened and closed the case but received a second complaint two months later when the records had still not been provided. Pharmacy Chain Enters into Business Associate Agreement with Law Firm Failure to report a violation could have serious consequences. What happens if a nurse violates HIPAA? - HIPAA Guide Read More, Office for Civil Rights has issued a statement confirming that an agreement has been reached with Adult & Pediatric Dermatology, P.C., of Concord, Massachusetts following the accidental disclosure of approximately 2,200 patients after a memory stick was stolen from the car of one of the centers employees. Read More, In March 2019, OCR received a complaint from a patient who alleged she had not been provided with a copy of her medical records in the requested electronic format despite making repeated requests. The case was settled for $1,000,000. Issue: Access, A patient alleged that a covered entity failed to provide him access to his medical records. 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 The previous record was the $3.5 million settlement with Triple S Management Corporation agreed in November 2015. 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. Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights announced yesterday that the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) has agreed to settle alleged HIPAA violations and will pay a financial penalty of $2.75 million. A nurse practitioner who has privileges at a multi-hospital health care system and who is part of the systems organized health care arrangement impermissibly accessed the medical records of her ex-husband. OCR also found the Notice of Privacy Practices to be inadequate. In 2017, Lifespan mentioned in a news release that someone broke into an employee vehicle and stole their work laptop. HIPAA violation compromises a patient and lands a nurse in hot water OCR discovered risk analysis failures, a lack of policies covering electronic devices, a lack of encryption or alternative safeguards, insufficient security policies, and insufficient physical safeguards, resulting in an impermissible disclosure of 521 individuals PHI. The outpatient facility reportedly believed that such disclosures were permitted by the Privacy Rule. If a nurse violates HIPAA, a patient cannot sue the nurse for a HIPAA violation. 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. Examples of HIPAA Violations and Common Scenarios 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. NYC Hospital Investigates Nurse for Sharing Video With The Intercept Some of these were HIPAA violations from employees posting a patient's protected health information (PHI) the social web. OCR has increased its enforcement activities in recent years. The acknowledgement form is now included in the intake package of forms. Upon learning of the incident, the hospital placed both employees on leave; the orderly resigned his employment shortly thereafter. State Attorney Generals can also impose financial penalties on HIPAA-covered entities and business associates for violations of the HIPAA Rules. Read More, Aetna Life Insurance Company and the affiliated covered entity (Aetna) were investigated over three data breaches that exposed the ePHI of 18,489 individuals. 0:57. 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. District of Ohio dismissed her case. A chain pharmacy disclosed protected health information to municipal law enforcement officials in a manner that did not conform to the provisions of the Privacy Rule. In response, the hospital instituted a number of actions to achieve compliance with the Privacy Rule. In the majority of cases, the agency resolves the complaints without the need for an investigation or finds no HIPAA violation exists. Read More, Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic, P.A., of North Carolina over alleged violations of HIPAA Rules. Issue: Safeguards; Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Disclosures to Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety. 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. OCR intervened and provided technical assistance on the HIPAA Right of Access but received a second complaint when the practice continued to deny him access. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required that the private practice revise its policies and procedures regarding access requests to reflect the individual's right of access regardless of payment source. The HIPAA Right of Access violation was settled with OCR for $160,000. OCR provided technical assistance but received another complaint from the same patient that the records had still not been provided. Five Memphis healthcare workers charged with conspiracy, HIPAA violations. For example, any HIPAA form a patient signs needs to have a Right to Revoke clause. As HIPAA violations are so severe, and may result in huge fines for Covered Entities, if . Therefore you should assess employees security awareness as part of a risk analysis to see if more training is required. 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. Read More, The city of New Haven in Connecticut was investigated over an incident where a former employee accessed its systems after termination and copied a file containing the ePHI of 498 individuals. There are two key events to consider when looking at the timeline of penalties for HIPAA violations the passage of the HITECH Act in 2009 which reversed the burden of proof for HIPAA violations, and the HIPAA Omnibus Rule in 2013 which enacted the passage of the HITECH Act making business associates liable for HIPAA violations that were their fault. The table above will be updated when the new penalty amounts for 2023 are finalized by the HHS. 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. Issue: Safeguards, Minimum Necessary. 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. The. Covered Entity: Multi-Hospital Healthcare Provider The case was settled for $62,500. Mental Health Center Provides Access and Revises Policies and Procedures OCR intervened and provided technical assistance on the HIPAA Right of Access but received a second complaint when the records had still not been provided. Listed below are all the OCR HIPAA violation cases that have resulted in a financial penalty.