Skagit County Settles Possible HIPAA Violations (Washington, DC – Insurance News and Markets) - Early this month, Skagit County officials, in Washington state, agreed to a $215,000 settlement in a case of potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules. “This case marks the first settlement with a county government and sends a strong message about the importance of HIPAA compliance to local and county governments, regardless of size,” said Susan McAndrew, deputy director of health information privacy at the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). “These agencies need to adopt a meaningful compliance program to ensure the privacy and security of patients’ information.” The Office for Civil Rights began the investigation when they received a report breach report about receipts with electronic protected health information for seven individuals. These receipts had been accessed when the information was accidentally moved to a server that the public could access. The investigation revealed that there had been more exposures – information for 1,581 individuals, in fact. Many files included information about testing and treatment of infectious diseases. There were other noncompliance issues as well. The county will cooperate and work through a corrective action plan with written policies, procedures, documentation requirements, training and other measures that will ensure current and future compliance with HIPAA rules. As part of this plan, the county must submit regular status reports to the OCR. Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 17:43:48 +0000
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