CA health records breaches net $800,000 in fines
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, December 6, 2010
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
Six California hospitals and a convalescent home—including four small rural facilities—must pay nearly $800,000 because of eight health information privacy breaches.
The violations include two against Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, one of which was assessed at the maximum fine of $250,000 because reports containing lab and other details for 596 patients were placed in an unlocked outdoor locker that was stolen, according to state documents.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) levied a near maximum finr of $225,000 against Pacific Hospital of Long Beach because an employee obtained personal information on nine patients “and allowed other people to use this information in order to open up fraudulent accounts,” such as accounts with Verizon, state documents said. That incident has since become a police matter.
The CDPH fines Kaweah Manor Convalescent Hospital in Visalia, 45 miles south of Fresno, $125,000 because a Kaweah employee allegedly stole the identities of five patients and used them to redirect their mail and open accounts, according to state documents.
California passed laws against privacy breaches after healthcare employees leaked information about entertainers such as actress Farrah Fawcett to the media three years ago.
Read more on HIPAA Update blog.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- Identify potential Medicaid RAC target areas
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- Q&A: Follow CMS' coding guidelines when using modifier -25
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- CMS has reformulated payments for some bilateral procedures
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- ED-to-inpatient transfers are flawed with safety gaps
- Searched