Q: When I returned to work after being out for a month on short-term disability, I was disciplined because of my doctor's excuse, which I only gave to medical but somehow was released to the human resources (HR) department. Could this release of my medical information to HR be a HIPAA violation?
Millions of medical records are sent to insurance companies every year by hospital and health system business office personnel to expedite claims payment, respond to payer audits, or fulfill other payer denial requests for information. And any time medical records are handled, HIPAA concerns come into play.
Protected health information of approximately 19,000 current and former employees of Toyota Industries North America Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, was exposed in a security incident, the company reported in a September notice.
Q: I went to a clinic and they asked to scan my driver’s license. They told me it was federal law and that I could not keep my appointment if I did not let them scan it. Were they right?
Most covered entities still use mailings to communicate with patients and members, so it is worth revisiting Aetna's 2017 mailing breach and the surrounding litigation to understand where negligence occurred and to take away some valuable lessons learned.
UMass Memorial Medical Group Inc. and UMass Memorial Medical Center Inc. reached a $230,000 settlement with the state of Massachusetts in response to two data breaches that exposed the personal health information of more than 15,000 Massachusetts residents.
