DOJ charges two under HIPAA
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, September 18, 2006
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to HIPAA Weekly Advisor!
Florida prosecutors have indicted two people for charges that include a criminal violation of HIPAA after stolen patient information wound up on bogus Medicare claims, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced September 8.
Fernando Ferrer, Jr., and Isis Machado face an eight count indictment in the Southern District Court of Florida. According to prosecutors, Machado used her position at the Cleveland Clinic's office in Weston, FL, to download the information of more than 1,000 patients. She then sold the data to Ferrer, her cousin, who used the stolen Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth, and Medicare numbers to submit approximately $2.8 million in false Medicare claims.
"Under HIPAA, we expect health care employees to keep our personal information confidential and secure. We will not stand by when this confidentiality is broken and criminals sell and profit from patients' health records," FBI agent Jonathan Solomon said in a DOJ release. The case is the third criminal prosecution of HIPAA. Ferrer and Machado face maximum HIPAA penalties of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- 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?
- Identify modifiable risk factors to prevent patient falls
- Hospitals are not bound by InterQual criteria for determining patient status
- Searched