The HIPAA Information Access Rights Crackdown Continues

The face of federal HIPAA enforcement has changed in a subtle but significant way in the past 18 months. Historically, the focus has been all about keeping personal health information (PHI) private and secure. But now enforcement has broadened to include the part of the HIPAA Privacy Rule that requires labs and other providers to provide persons timely access to their PHI at a reasonable cost. As of September 2019, no provider had ever been fined for failing to meet their PHI access responsibilities. As of press time, nearly a dozen such fines have been imposed. And those numbers are growing literally every week. Here’s the latest rundown of settlements. OCR Right of Access Initiative Settlements Scorecard Provider Settlement Amount* Allegations St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center $160,000 Phoenix hospital refused to provide PHI to patient’s mother even though she was his legal representative NY Spine Medicine $100,000 Neurology practice refuses patient’s multiple requests for copies of specific diagnostic films Bayfront Hospital $85,000 Florida hospital didn’t provide expectant mother timely access to the PHI of her unborn child Korunda Medical $85,000 After first refusing to provide it at all, Florida primary care and interventional pain management services provider sent patient’s […]