Think Before You Snoop

In the first HIPAA legal case against an individual, a former UCLA Medical Center researcher was sentenced on April 27 to four months in federal prison for looking at the confidential medical records of co-workers and celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is certainly evidence that the government is going to take the enforcement of HIPAA violations seriously. In addition, because the new rules related to HIPAA and the HITECH Act hold individuals responsible, the responsibility for protecting patient information becomes even more crucial.

Be sure your systems have the ability to provide audit trails, and be sure those audit trails are periodically reviewed for unauthorized access.

Training of all staff is critical here. The researcher’s defense is that he did not know this was a federal offense and that no reasonable person would have understood this. Training of staff so that they fully understand the consequences of their actions is critical in being able to show that you have met your responsibilities under the law.

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Tagged with: HIPAA Compliance • HIPAA privacy rule • HIPAA security rule • HIPAA Training • HITECH Act

Filed under: HIPAA • HITECH Act • Training

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