The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services this week imposed its first ever civil money penalty against a HIPAA covered entity for violations of the privacy rule. The $4.3 million fine was levied against Cignet Health of Prince George’s County, Md. for failing to provide its patients access to their medical records.
HIPAA requires a covered entity to provide its patients with copies of medical records within 30 days of a records request but allows an extension up to 60 days. Forty-one patients who had requested their medical records over a 13-month period and did not receive them filed complaints against the practice with OCR. Notably, the practice failed to respond to OCR’s request for the records and otherwise failed to cooperate with the government. The government’s fine included $1.3 million for failure to provide the patients their medical records and $3 million for the practice’s failure to cooperate, which constituted “willful neglect” to comply with the HIPAA privacy rule.
In imposing such a large fine, OCR relied on its enhanced enforcement authority granted as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
Dallas L Alford IV, CPA is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of North Carolina and owner of Atlantic Financial Consulting, a consulting firm that provides comprehensive medical billing services, practice management consulting, coding audits, Medicare compliance, Medicare RAC support and other general medical practice consulting services.
To learn more about Atlantic Financial Consulting you may visit their website at http://atlanticfinancial.us or contact Dallas L Alford IV, CPA directly at 1 888-428-2555, Ext. 200.
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