Covenant HealthCare has advised more than 6,000 patients that their electronic medical records were inappropriately accessed by one of its staff members. The improper access was identified during a November 2016 review of EMR access logs. The audit revealed an unusual...
The first HIPAA settlement of 2017 has been announced by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR). This is also the first settlement to date specifically based on an unnecessary delay to breach notification after the exposure of...
MAPFRE Life Assurance Company of Puerto Rico – A subsidiary of MAPFRE S.A., of Spain – has agreed a $2.2 million settlement, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, to resolve potential noncompliance with the Health Insurance...
During her campaign to become Republican state senator for Virginia in 2015, Henrico County physician Siobhan Dunnavant, M.D., impermissably used patients’ contact information – classed as protected health information under HIPAA Rules – to garner donations from...
HIPAA settlements reached record highs in 2016. This is in part due to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights increasing its enforcement activities in recent years. In total, payments of $22,855,300 were made to OCR in 2016 to resolve...
