Office for Civil Rights HIPAA enforcement actions, investigations, and compliance strategies
A receptionist at a New York City dental clinic mentioned a patient's upcoming root canal to the patient's coworker — casually, in
A Faxed Lab Report Sent to the Wrong Number Started It All A nurse at a mid-size clinic in Minnesota faxed a patient's
The Audit That Costs Less Than the Breach A hospital system in Oregon thought its annual checklist was enough. Internal IT signed off every year.
The Hurricane That Exposed More Than a Hospital's Roof In 2017, Hurricane Harvey flooded a major Texas hospital system. Staff scrambled to evacuate
In 2011, a small cardiology practice in Phoenix switched from paper charts to an electronic health record system. Within six months, an unencrypted laptop containing
A $4.3 Million Wake-Up Call Buried in an EHR Audit Log In 2023, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center lost its years-long
In 2018, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center lost a $4.3 million appeal after OCR found that unencrypted laptops and thumb drives
A $5.1 Million Penalty That Started with a Simple Question In 2017, Memorial Healthcare System in Florida agreed to pay $5.1 million to
A hospital employee in Texas looks up her ex-husband's medical records out of curiosity. A dental office in Georgia tosses paper charts into
A Mother Couldn't Get Her Own Son's Medical Records — Then the Feds Got Involved In 2019, a small medical practice in
A scheduling coordinator at a mid-size orthopedic practice pulled a patient's full medical record — psychiatric notes, HIV status, substance abuse history — just to
The CEO Who Learned HIPAA the Hard Way In 2018, the owner of a small health plan called Filefax agreed to pay $100,000 to
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