Hospital Revises Email Distribution as a Result of a Disclosure to Persons Without a "Need to Know"
Hospital Revises Email Distribution as a Result of a Disclosure to Persons Without a "Need to Know"
Covered Entity: General Hospital
Issue: Impermissible Use and Disclosure
A complainant, who was both a patient and an employee of the
hospital, alleged that her protected health information (PHI) was
impermissibly disclosed to her supervisor. OCR’s investigation revealed
that: the hospital distributed an Operating Room (OR) schedule to
employees via email; the hospital’s OR schedule contained information
about the complainant’s upcoming surgery. 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 complainant’s
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 hospital disciplined and retrained the
employee who made the impermissible disclosure. Additionally, in order
to prevent similar incidents, the hospital undertook a complete review
of the distribution of the OR schedule. As a result of this review, the
hospital revised the distribution of the OR schedule, limiting it to
those who have “a need to know.”
| Health Plan Corrects Computer Flaw that Caused Mailing of EOBs to Wrong Persons Covered Entity: Health Plans Issue: Safeguards A national health maintenance organization sent explanation of benefits (EOB) by mail to a complainant's unauthorized family member. OCR's investigation determined that a flaw in the health plan's computer system put the protected health information of approximately 2,000 families at risk of disclosure in violation of the Rule. Among the corrective actions required to resolve this case, OCR required the insurer to correct the flaw in its computer system, review all transactions for a six month period and correct all ...read more |
| Private Practice Revises Process to Provide Access to Records Regardless of Payment Source Covered Entity: Private Practices Issue: Access At the direction of an insurance company that had requested an independent medical exam of an individual, a private medical practice denied the individual a copy of the medical records. OCR determined that the private practice denied the individual access to records to which she was entitled by the Privacy Rule. 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 ...read more |
| Hospital Issues Guidelines Regarding Disclosures to Avert Threats to Health or Safety Covered Entity: General Hospital Issue: Safeguards; Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Disclosures to Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety After treating a patient injured in a rather unusual sporting accident, the hospital released to the local media, without the patient’s authorization, copies of the patient’s skull x-ray as well as a description of the complainant’s medical condition. The local newspaper then featured on its front page the individual’s x-ray and an article that included the date of the accident, the location of the accident, the patient’s ...read more |
| TYLER, Texas — U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced today that a former employee of an East Texas hospital has pleaded guilty to criminal HIPAA charges in the Eastern District of Texas. Joshua Hippler, 30, formerly of Longview, Texas, was indicted on March 26, 2014, on charges of Wrongful Disclosure of Individually Identifiable Health Information. Hippler pleaded guilty on August 28, 2014 during a hearing before United States Magistrate Judge John D. Love. The indictment alleged that from December 1, 2012, through January 14, 2013, Hippler, who was then an employee of a covered entity under HIPAA, obtained protected ...read more |
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