News station discovers un-shredded documents
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, January 5, 2009
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A Florida news station received several pages of un-shredded medical documents from an unknown source, raising questions of HIPAA privacy violations against the doctor’s office from where the records came.
First Coast News in Jacksonville discovered the documents December 30 with an unsigned note that read, "Patient's psychiatric records found in garbage." The documents, containing information about 37 patients were from the office of Dr. Anjali Pathak, a counselor.
They included:
- A fax containing a patient’s name and number
- Documents including patient names and prescriptions
- An insurance form with a patient’s name, Social Security number, address, telephone number, birth date, and coverage details HIPAA privacy rules require the shredding of documents containing personal information.
Violations can carry fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment for up to 10 years.
Read the full story by the First Coast News.
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