OCR update: more than 4,000 HIPAA violation complaints filed
Compliance Monitor, February 18, 2004
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The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), a division of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, has received 4,266 complaints of HIPAA privacy violations since the law took effect in April 2003, says Scott Edmiston, equal opportunity specialist at the OCR in Boston. Edmiston spoke February 13 at a privacy officers forum sponsored by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium.
OCR has closed 42% of these cases, he says. Cases are closed when OCR determines that they no longer warrant investigation. Reasons include OCR having no jurisdiction, the situation was resolved, a course of action was taken, or an investigation took place but no violation was found, Edmiston says.
Primary reasons for the violations, which are documented in complaint profiles, are divided into five major categories:
The largest majority of complaints filed have been against health care providers (i.e. hospitals, physician practices, etc.), with a smaller number coming from pharmacies and health plans.
At this time, no fines have been levied as a result of a HIPAA privacy violation, Edmiston says.
OCR has jurisdiction over HIPAA's privacy regulation. It has the authority to refer cases to the Department of Justice for further action.
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