Office for Civil Rights HIPAA enforcement actions, investigations, and compliance strategies
The Spreadsheet That Cost a Health System $5.1 Million In 2017, Memorial Healthcare System paid $5.1 million to HHS after employees accessed the
A hospital administrator once told me she thought there were only three reasons you could share patient data: treatment, payment, and "when the lawyers
A Receptionist, a Fax Machine, and a $1.5 Million Mistake I once worked with a specialty clinic where a front-desk employee faxed a patient&
In 2018, a medical records company called Advanced Care Hospitalists paid $500,000 to settle HIPAA violations after a billing services contractor gained access to
A compliance officer at a midsize cardiology practice once told me she'd spent $4,200 on a "HIPAA security certification" for
A medical practice in New York thought they'd saved money by pulling together a makeshift HIPAA training for employees from scattered online resources
A hospital billing clerk in Texas pulls up a patient's full medical record — psychiatric notes, HIV status, substance abuse history — just to verify
A hospital receptionist in Texas emails a patient's lab results to the wrong address. Within 48 hours, that patient's HIV status
The Spreadsheet That Cost a Health System $4.3 Million In 2023, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital settled with OCR for $240,000 after 23 security
Last year, a small orthopedic clinic in Virginia got a letter from HHS. Not the good kind. An investigation revealed they'd been using
In 2023, a dermatology practice in Massachusetts paid $150,000 to the Office for Civil Rights after a patient's medical photographs were disclosed
A hospital in Texas released three years of a patient's psychotherapy notes to an employer — based on a form the patient had signed
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