HIPAA Enforcement

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Matthew Redding contributed to this post.

It’s a familiar story: a HIPAA breach triggers an investigation which reveals systemic flaws in HIPAA compliance, resulting in a seven-figure settlement.  A stolen laptop, unencrypted data, a missing business associate agreement, and an aggressive, noncompliant contractor add to the feeling of déjà vu.

North Memorial Health Care…

I’m sure fellow bloggers Bill Maruca and Michael Kline join me in giving three cheers for the recent growth in our firm’s health care practice (welcome, Minneapolis!) and ever-deepening pool of attorneys dealing with clients’ privacy and data security issues. But one recent addition to our team, Margaret (“Margie”) Davino, gets a…

Cancer Care Group, P.C., a 13-physician radiation oncology practice in Indiana (group), has agreed to pay $750,000 and implement a comprehensive corrective action plan in a settlement resulting from the theft of a laptop and backup media containing unencrypted patient information.  As is often the case, the breach incident triggered an investigation that revealed deeper…

Our partner Elizabeth Litten and I were once again quoted by our good friend Marla Durben Hirsch in her recent articles in Medical Practice Compliance Alert entitled “Misapplication of Internet Application Triggers $218,400 Settlement” and “Protect Patient Data on the Internet with These 6 Steps.”  The three of us together were able to come up…

A registered nurse employed by Minnesota Blue Cross Blue Shield (BC/BS) with a history of drug offenses allegedly accessed a prescription drug database 249 times without a legitimate purpose, according to a report by Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO posted by reporter Esme Murphy.

The nurse, Jim Johnson, reportedly had been previously assigned by BC/BS under…

Medicare beneficiaries whose healthcare providers participate in an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) may want to add the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website, “Medicare & You”, to their lists of favorite internet links if they don’t want their Medicare claims data shared.  Proposed rules published…

Nearly a year ago, as described in an earlier blog post, one of my favorite health industry journalists, Marla Durben Hirsh, published an article in Medical Practice Compliance Alert predicting physician practice compliance trends for 2014.  Marla quoted Michael Kline’s prescient prediction that HIPAA would increasingly be used as “best practice” in actions brought…