Day Pitney healthcare law attorney Eric Fader was quoted
extensively in a June 24 Law360 article titled "5 Lessons From
HIPAA Record-Dumping Settlement." The article discusses the
$800,000 settlement entered into by Parkview Health System, Inc.,
with the U.S. Department of Human Services Office for Civil Rights
(OCR), announced by HHS on June 23. OCR's
investigation found that employees of the Indiana hospital had left
71 cardboard boxes of patient records in a retiring physician's
driveway, unattended, within 20 feet of a public road. The
physician complained to OCR that Parkview had violated the HIPAA
Privacy Rule.
The Law360 article highlighted the continued importance of
safeguarding paper documents as the healthcare industry shifts to
electronic records, and the value of good-faith compliance efforts
when it comes to minimizing penalties. Although an $800,000
settlement is certainly substantial, Eric and other commentators
suggested that the fine for such an obvious HIPAA violation could
have been far higher, had Parkview not had proper policies and
procedures in place or had they failed to cooperate with the OCR
investigation. Eric said, "[The violation] is really egregious
enough that I think that if the OCR had wanted to make an example
of these people, it could have. $800,000 for something this clear
— they're getting off cheap."
Eric also mentioned that while the Parkview settlement is probably
sufficiently eyebrow-raising to get the healthcare industry's
attention, it is possible that regulators will soon announce
another similar settlement to drive home the message. "I think
we might see another old-fashioned case like this with boxes of
records," he said. And, referring to the recent wide variety
of HIPAA settlements, Eric said, "The OCR has clearly been
making a point of publicizing HIPAA settlements with many different
fact situations to illustrate the spectrum of potential violations
— like different categories in a game of 'HIPAA
Jeopardy.' I'll take 'Unattended Boxes of Records for
$800,000,' Alex."
Other recent HIPAA settlements are discussed and linked to in this
earlier
blog post.
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