Show This To The M.D. B--t--ds

February 24, 2011

The next time an M.D. or Hospital, or Health Insurance Company fails to comply

with your request for your own health records, within 60 days of your request,

show them this news item [save it to your computer documents for future use].

..........................................................

HIPAA Violation Costs Cignet Millions

By a Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: February 23, 2011

A land healthcare organization will have to pay the U.S. government $4.3

million for not handing over health records to patients who requested them,

according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The agency's Office for Civil Rights has ordered Cignet Health -- which has four

clinics in southern land as well as facilities in the U.K., Nigeria, and

Ghana -- to pay the fine for denying 41 patients their records and for failing

to cooperate with a subsequent federal investigation.

This is the first time federal officials have imposed a civil penalty for

violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) since

its privacy component went into effect in 2003, according to the Washington

Post. In previous instances, offenders agreed to change their practices or pay

fines to settle the case, the newspaper said.

The HIPAA privacy rule requires that healthcare providers give patients copies

of their medical records within 60 days of the request. The patients

individually filed complaints with the HHS office for records that were not

provided between September 2008 and October 2009. HHS said the company refused

to comply with the subsequent investigation by not responding to the office's

demand to produce the records.

Nor did the company release them in the face of a subpoena, the agency said.

When HHS obtained a default judgment against Cignet in March 2010 after filing a

petition to enforce its subpoena, the company produced the records.

Cignet delivered 59 boxes of records to the U.S. Justice Department, which

contained not only the records of the 41 patients, but also the records for

4,500 other patients who did not request their release, according to the

Washington Post.

" Ensuring that Americans' health information privacy is protected is vital to

our healthcare system and a priority of this administration, " HHS Secretary

Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. " [The agency] is serious about enforcing

individual rights guaranteed by the HIPAA privacy rule. "

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