Pharmacy Chain Revises Process for Disclosures to Law Enforcement
Pharmacy Chain Revises Process for Disclosures to Law Enforcement
Covered Entity: Pharmacies
Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures
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. Among other corrective actions to
resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required this chain to
revise its national policy regarding law enforcement's access to patient
protected health information to comply with the Privacy Rule
requirements, including that disclosures of protected health information
to law enforcement only be made in response to written requests from
law enforcement officials, unless state law requires otherwise. The
revised policy was implemented in the chains' stores nationwide.
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| Health Sciences Center Revises Process to Prevent Unauthorized Disclosures to Employers Covered Entity: General Hospitals Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Authorizations A state health sciences center disclosed protected health information to a complainant's employer without authorization. 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. All staff was trained on the revised procedures. ...read more |
| Pharmacy Chain Enters into Business Associate Agreement with Law Firm Covered Entity: Pharmacy Chain Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Business Associates 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. OCR investigated the allegation and found no evidence that the law firm had impermissibly disclosed the customer’s PHI. 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 ...read more |
| Public Hospital Corrects Impermissible Disclosure of PHI in Response to a Subpoena Covered Entity: General Hospital Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures 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. 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 ...read more |
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