Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC) has agreed to pay $111,400 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for an alleged violation of HIPAA. OCR found that the company failed to deactivate a former employee’s access to a web-based calendar that contained the protected health information (PHI) of 557 patients. The company also failed to obtain a business associate agreement (BAA) with the calendar company (Google).
Advanced Care Hospitalists PL (ACH) has agreed to pay $500,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for an alleged violation of HIPAA. OCR found that the company shared protected health information (PHI) with an unknown vendor without a business associate agreement (BAA). According to the Resolution Agreement, “ACH impermissibly disclosed the PHI of 9,255 of its patients to a third party for billing processing services without the protections of a business associate agreement in place.” The PHI later turned up on the vendor’s website.
This was clearly an unforced error in compliance — and an expensive one! So easy to avoid too! Providing PHI to a vendor without a business associate agreement is like going to work without your clothes on. Vendor management is incredibly important, and organizations that fail to have proper agreements with their vendors that receive personal data are often punished severely by many privacy laws beyond HIPAA. The GDPR requires vendor agreements, and the FTC has found that companies engage in an unfair practice under the FTC Act Section 5 when they lack an adequate vendor agreement.
The main lesson from most privacy enforcement cases, whether HIPAA or otherwise: Do the basics! So many cases involve failing to do obvious things. There’s not much muddy ground in the land of enforcement.
The press release can be viewed here. The Resolution Agreement can be viewed here.
HIPAA Enforcement 2017: Another Big Year for HIPAA Enforcement
Why Is HIPAA Data Breach Enforcement Increasing? An Insurer’s View from Katherine Keefe
Allergy Associates of Hartford has agreed to pay $125,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for an alleged violation of HIPAA. The incident occurred in February 2015. A patient reached out to a local TV station about a dispute with a doctor at Allergy Associates. When the reporter contacted the doctor for comment, the doctor improperly disclosed the patient’s PHI. After Allergy Associates learned that HHS was investigating this incident, no disciplinary action was taken against the doctor. According to the Resolution Agreement:
(1) Allergy Associates impermissibly disclosed the Complainant’s PHI to an unauthorized third party. See 45 C.F.R. § 164.502(a).
(2) Allergy Associates failed to apply appropriate sanctions against its Workforce Member who failed to comply with the entity’s privacy policies and procedures and the Privacy Rule. See 45 C.F.R. §164.530(e)(l).
According to the HHS press release:
“When a patient complains about a medical practice, doctors cannot respond by disclosing private patient information to the media,” said OCR Director Roger Severino. “Because egregious disclosures can lead to substantial penalties, covered entities need to pay close attention to HIPAA’s privacy rules, especially when responding to press inquiries.”
The press release can be viewed here. The Notice of Proposed Determination can be viewed here. The Resolution Agreement can be viewed here.
HIPAA Enforcement 2017: Another Big Year for HIPAA Enforcement
Why Is HIPAA Data Breach Enforcement Increasing? An Insurer’s View from Katherine Keefe
Recently, I created two new HIPAA training resources.
I created a 1-page visual summary of HIPAA, which I call the HIPAA Whiteboard. The idea was to summarize HIPAA in a concise and visually-engaging way. You can download a PDF handout version here. We’ve been licensing it to many organizations for training and awareness purposes.
I subsequently created a new training module — an interactive version of the HIPAA Whiteboard — the HIPAA Interactive Whiteboard. When people click on each topic, the program provides brief narrated background information, presented in a very understandable and memorable way. Trainees can learn at their own pace. This program is designed to be very short — it is about 5 minutes long.
It can readily be used on internal websites to raise awareness and teach basic information about HIPAA. It can also be used in learning management systems.
This week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced an agreement to settle HIPAA violations with Filefax, located in Northbrook, Illinois. One aspect was different than their usual settlement process in that Filefax closed the business down during the OCR investigation and was no longer operating when the settlement was reached. OCR announced that Filefax could not avoid their obligations under HIPAA even though they were no longer running the company. The receiver that is liquidating the company’s assets agreed to pay $100,000 to settle the potential HIPAA violations made by the company while open.
Their HIPAA violations stemmed from an anonymous complaint stating that the medical records of approximately 2,150 patients, which contained protected health information (PHI), received by Filefax had been taken to a shredding/recycling facility and sold. The OCR investigation found over a period of several weeks the PHI had been left unsecured outside Filefox and had been removed from the facility by an unauthorized person.
The press release can be viewed here. The Resolution Agreement can be viewed here.
HIPAA Enforcement 2017: Another Big Year for HIPAA Enforcement
Why Is HIPAA Data Breach Enforcement Increasing? An Insurer’s View from Katherine Keefe
Lessons from 2016, the Biggest HIPAA Enforcement Year on Record
At the end of 2017, the OCR logged just under $20 million in fines for HIPAA violations from 10 enforcement actions with monetary penalties. In 2016, the total in penalties was roughly the same amount but from 15 organizations.
Here is an overview of the resolution agreements and enforcement actions with civil monetary penalties from 2017:
Quite a number of cases involved failure to implement safeguards for PHI on mobile devices. The best fix is to superglue devices to staff. Short of doing that, organizations should recognize that mobile devices frequently get lost or stolen, so there should be heightened security controls when PHI is accessible on these devices.
Several cases involved failing to provide timely notice or to act promptly after problems were discovered. In politics, it’s often not the scandal, but the coverup that fells politicians. In the world of HIPAA, it’s often not the incident, but the response that leads to organizations being penalized.
Recently, HIPAA enforcement over data breaches is increasing – a lot. This year has seen some of the largest monetary penalties. Why is this happening?
I had the chance to interview Katherine Keefe, who leads the Beazley Breach Response (BBR) Services Group. I am particularly interested in the insurer’s perspective, so I interviewed Katherine.
The first quarter of 2017 is not yet over and the OCR has already released details of four enforcement penalties totaling over $11 million. 2016 set a record with $20 million in fines for the year, with $5.2 million of that coming in the first quarter. In just the first 2 months of 2017, the fines have been more than half what the entire amount for 2016 was. Here are details about enforcement actions in 2017 thus far:
Not too long ago, I posted an overview of OCR’s enforcement in 2016. OCR continues to be active in its enforcement, at its highest level to date. This is a great opportunity for privacy and security officials to point out to upper management the need for greater resources and attention to HIPAA compliance.
Time to call the Guinness Book of World Records because HHS has set a new world record in HIPAA enforcement. 2016 saw a considerable increase in HIPAA enforcement resolution agreements and monetary penalties. At the end of 2016, the OCR logged over $20 million in fines for HIPAA violations from 15 enforcement actions with monetary penalties — a stark contrast to 2015 penalties which were just over $6 million from just 6 resolution agreements.
The per entity fines have increased as well increasing from about $850K in recent years to $2 million in 2016.
Also, in late 2015, the Office of the Inspector General released findings of a study that recommended a stronger enforcement and follow-up from the OCR for HIPAA violations:
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued its first resolution agreement and monetary penalty against a business associate (BA).