ABC News documentary leads to HIPAA violation fines against Boston hospitals

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Boston Herald

Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center all reached settlements announced yesterday with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. MGH paid the most at $515,000, followed by Brigham at $384,000 and BMC at $100,000.

The feds say the hospitals handed over patients’ protected medical information to ABC without first getting permission from patients during filming of the series in late 2014 and early 2015.

HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — is a 1996 law that governs medical patient privacy by binding what medical personnel can release.

Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital said in a joint statement,
“Neither BWH nor MGH received complaints from patients or their families regarding ABC News’ presence at the hospitals”

Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/09/abc_news_documentary_leads_to_hipaa_violation_fines_against_boston

[Stonepounder]

1. Where does the Herald get its journalists?

I am not a journalist, but I know about the 5 W's. Who, What, When, Where, Why.

The article left out the "Why". What did the Hospitals do, or fail to do, that caused HHS to swoop in? I know a lot about HIPPA since I used to work in the medical software industry and helped write code to comply with HIPPA.

The hospitals say they complied with all HIPPA requirements, got releases from patients and family, yet still ended up paying $1M in fines.

If they felt they complied, they have lawyers who could and should have fought back. What did the gov't feel they did that was illegal? All of that was left out of the article. I want to know what the hospitals did or didn't do that violated HIPPA and that information was left completely out of the article.

[PatSeg]

2. I see a lot of poorly written

news articles these days, not to mention some ridiculous headlines.