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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

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HHS Slaps $1 Million HIPAA Fine On Provider For Lost Data

Published on Fri Feb 25, 2011

Warning: HIPAA enforcement is ramping up. The feds don't seem afraid to use their HIPAA fining power, and it was one employee's innocent mistake that cost $1 million. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has fined the General Hospital Corporation and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization Inc. in Boston $1 million over an incident where a Mass General employee left files on a subway train that were never recovered. "We hope the health care industry will take a close look at this agreement and recognize that OCR is serious about HIPAA enforcement," OCR Director Georgina Verdugo says in a release about the settlement. "It is a covered entity's responsibility to protect its patients' health information." And OCR has fined insurance plan Cignet Health of Prince George's County, Md., more than $4.3 million for breaching the HIPAA Privacy Rule. "The fine is the first civil monetary [...]
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