Five HIPAA Violation Horror Stories

The HIPAA laws and regulations exist for a reason.PHI needs to be actively protected. This includes physical paper documents and digital records.
What consequences could an employee or organization face if they violate HIPAA laws?
The legal consequences depend on the severity of the situation and how many affected patients there are.
Let's look at some real-world examples of how people’s lives turned upside down due to HIPAA violations.
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In 2013, a New York healthcare facility allowed a film crew from the medical reality TV show “NY Med” to film two patients without their consent. One of the patients even died in the emergency room during the filming. An investigation found that NYP let the film crew virtually unfettered access to the hospital. The situation created an environment where PHI was not protected. As a result, NYP agreed to pay a $2.2 million settlement to OCR and entered into a Corrective Action Plan to ensure that the incident would not repeat.
In 2014, a healthcare employee went to court because he accessed PHI for malicious intent. He allegedly accessed an untold number of documents. His intentions? To sell the information for personal gain. The employee pleaded guilty to the offenses that took place at an unnamed East Texas hospital between December 2012 and January 2013. His sentence involved 18 months in jail.
A medical center in San Francisco needed to deal with a snooping pharmacist in 2014. The pharmacist snooped into 844 patient records between October 2013 and October 2014. The accessed information included patient diagnoses, prescription data, and clinical notes. Due to the severity of the situation, the employer terminated the pharmacist.
In 2014, a company discovered its computer systems were compromised. The breach lasted for nearly nine months and involved spear-phishing emails that installed malware. The attack affected 10.5 million individuals and their ePHI, including Social Security numbers, bank account information, and health plan clinical information. An investigation uncovered multiple potential HIPAA violations The company agreed to settle a $10 million lawsuit and a $74 million lawsuit on behalf of those affected in the breach.
As you can see, the courts take privacy violations very seriously.
Whether intentions are malicious or not, HIPAA violations can have serious legal consequences. Fines, penalties, and jail time can occur for snooping or accessing PHI without a valid reason, permission from the patient, or medical necessity.
The best way to protect yourself, your coworkers, and your organization is to make sure you track the systems that store ePHI. You also need to make sure your employees receive the proper HIPAA training. You should also watch the digital activity of your systems.
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