Five Former Methodist Hospital Employees Charged with HIPAA Violations
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Five Former Methodist Hospital Employees Charged with HIPAA Violations
Memphis, TN – A
federal grand jury has indicted five former Methodist Hospital
Employees for conspiring with Roderick Harvey, 40, to unlawfully
disclose patient information in violation of the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as “HIPAA.”
United States Attorney Kevin G. Ritz announced the indictment today.
HIPAA was enacted by Congress in 1996 to create national standards to
protect sensitive patient information from being disclosed without a
patient’s knowledge or consent. HIPAA’s provisions make it a crime to
disclose patient information, or to obtain patient information with the
intent to sell, transfer or use such information for personal gain.
According to the indictment, between November 2017 and December 2020,
Harvey paid Kirby Dandridge, 38, Sylvia Taylor, 43, Kara Thompson, 30,
Melanie Russell, 41, and Adrianna Taber, 26, to provide him with names
and phone numbers of Methodist patients who had been involved in motor
vehicle accidents. After obtaining the information, Harvey sold the
information to third persons including personal injury attorneys and
chiropractors.
The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years
imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and three-year period of supervised
release.
Harvey was also charged with seven counts of obtaining patient
information with the intent to sell it for financial gain on various
dates between November 12, 2017, and September 7, 2019. Each of those
charges carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of
$250,000 and three years’ of supervised release.
Dandridge, Taylor, Thompson, Russell, and Taber were each charged
with separate violations of disclosing the information to Harvey in
violation of HIPAA. That charge carries a maximum penalty of one year
imprisonment, a $50,000 fine and a one-year period of supervised
release.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
United States Attorney Kevin Ritz thanked Assistant United States Attorney Carroll L. André III, who is prosecuting the case.
The charges and allegations in the indictment are merely
accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until
proven guilty.
| 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 ...read more |
| HHS Issues Guidance on HIPAA and Audio-Only Telehealth Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), is issuing guidance on how covered health care providers and health plans can use remote communication technologies to provide audio-only telehealth services when such communications are conducted in a manner that is consistent with the applicable requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, including when OCR’s Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth - PDF is no longer in effect. This guidance will help individuals ...read more |
| Must a covered entity inform individuals in advance of any fees that may be charged when the individuals request a copy of their PHI? This guidance remains in effect only to the extent that it is consistent with the court’s order in Ciox Health, LLC v. Azar, No. 18-cv-0040 (D.D.C. January 23, 2020), which may be found at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv0040-51. More information about the order is available at https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/court-order-right-of-access/index.html. Any provision within this guidance that has been vacated by the Ciox Health decision is rescinded. Yes. When an individual requests access to her PHI and the covered entity intends to charge the ...read more |
| Mental Health Center Provides Access after Denial Covered Entity: Mental Health Center Issue: Access, Authorization The complainant alleged that a mental health center (the "Center") improperly provided her records to her auto insurance company and refused to provide her with a copy of her medical records. The Center provided OCR with a valid authorization, signed by the complainant, permitting the release of information to the auto insurance company. OCR also determined that the Center denied the complainant's request for access because her therapists believed providing the records to her would likely cause her substantial harm. The Center did not, ...read more |
|
April 2026
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
| | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Blog Home
Newest Blog Entries
1/21/25 Understanding Business Associate Agreements
11/12/22 Modernizing Medicine Agrees to Pay $45 Million to Resolve Allegations of Accepting and Paying Illegal Kickbacks and Causing False Claims
11/12/22 Indian National Charged in $8 Million COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme
11/12/22 Former Hospital Employee Pleads Guilty To Criminal HIPPA Charges
11/12/22 Covered entities and those persons rendered accountable by general principles of corporate criminal liability may be prosecuted directly under 42 U.S.C. § 1320d-6
11/12/22 The Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services Data Breach
11/12/22 OCR Settles Three Cases with Dental Practices for Patient Right of Access under HIPAA
11/12/22 HHS Issues Guidance on HIPAA and Audio-Only Telehealth
11/12/22 Five Former Methodist Hospital Employees Charged with HIPAA Violations
11/12/22 May a covered entity use or disclose protected health information for litigation?
11/12/22 When does the Privacy Rule allow covered entities to disclose protected health information to law enforcement officials?
Blog Archives
November 2022 (54) January 2025 (1)
Blog Labels
HIPAA Enforcement (3) BAA (4) Covered Entity (40) ePHI (2) PPP Fraud (1) HIPAA (2) Telehealth (1) Data Breach (1) EHR Fraud (1)
|