Seattle court bangs gavel on first ever HIPAA conviction
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, August 23, 2004
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
A Seattle court convicted Richard Gibson August 19 of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information for economic gain, the first U.S. criminal conviction under HIPAA.
Gibson plead guilty to stealing a patient's name, birth date, and social security number while he was employed at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Gibson testified that he used the information to get four credit cards in the patient's name and accumulate more than $9,000 in debt, according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington.
If U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez accepts the terms of the plea, Gibson could serve up to 16 months in prison. He will also have to pay off the credit card debt and pay retribution to the patient "for expenses the patient incurred as a result of Gibson's use of his identity," according to the release.
Go to the United States Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington Web site for more information.
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
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- 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
- CMS has reformulated payments for some bilateral procedures
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Hospitals are not bound by InterQual criteria for determining patient status
- ED-to-inpatient transfers are flawed with safety gaps
- Searched