Penalty for HIPAA violations?

[crossurfingers]

We accidentally dispensed a prescription for a patient to the patient's brother, who both live at the same address (and are both over 18). Patient was livid, understandably so, and despite ending up giving both prescriptions out for free and many apologies she has told us she's going to report us for violating HIPAA. The incident was written up in the pharmacy, but I guess you could say that we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. Has anyone else experienced a situation like this? What eventually happens? Is this grounds for termination?

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[meg]

No one has been prosecuted for a HIPAA violation yet and there's been tons of complaints.

~meg

 

[MountainPharmD]

You should not need to worry about it. HIPPA violations are going to happen because we are human and mistakes will happen. To be fined for a HIPPA violation you would need to be intentionally in violation of the law. Accidental disclosures will happen and your company should have some sort of disclosure form or log. Healthcare professionals understanding of HIPPA is poor let alone a customers understanding. This sounds like some idiot who needed something to complain out blowing off steam.

 

[Priapism321]

We accidentally dispensed a prescription for a patient to the patient's brother, who both live at the same address (and are both over 18). Patient was livid, understandably so, and despite ending up giving both prescriptions out for free and many apologies she has told us she's going to report us for violating HIPAA. The incident was written up in the pharmacy, but I guess you could say that we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. Has anyone else experienced a situation like this? What eventually happens? Is this grounds for termination?

What were the meds? If you handed out my valacyclovir or seven day course of doxycycline to my brother I would be pretty pissed as well....

One student a couple years ahead of me opened the electronic medical record of a celebrity being treated at the hospital for 20-30 seconds: suspended from pharmacy school for a year. That's as bad as I have heard that I can think of right now.

 

[alwaystired]

Also, did the patient's brother say he wanted to pick up the brother's meds? Because that gets into a whole gray area---Family members that pick up each other's meds. Can we seriously call every person and say, "can I give your wife your meds?" No we can't. So if the patient's brother said, "I'm picking up my and my brother's rx, and they have the same address, are you really going to be fined?" But if you gave it out accidenally without the brother asking, well, it will be interesting what the consequence will be. 😕

 

[pion]

Like was said above, unless someone intentionally gave out protected information, I doubt anything will come of it.

 

[mindquick]

You intentionally gave out protected information, and you can go to jail for a very long time. Try to talk to your patient about being lenient toward you.

 

[MountainPharmD]

You intentionally gave out protected information, and you can go to jail for a very long time. Try to talk to your patient about being lenient toward you.

Your funny.....

 

[mindquick]

Your funny.....

i'm serious, it says right in the HIPAA handbook. you can also be fined $250,000

 

[MountainPharmD]

i'm serious, it says right in the HIPAA handbook. you can also be fined $250,000

I know exactly what the HIPPA regulations are. The fines and jail time are for serious and intentional violations of the law such as a corporation selling PHI to a third party for profit. Accidental dsclosures happen all the time. The key is they are accidental.

 

[crimson1566]

You intentionally gave out protected information, and you can go to jail for a very long time. Try to talk to your patient about being lenient toward you.

lol, what part of "accidentally" of his post did you take to mean intentionally?

 

[soyroger]

We had a pharmacy law lecture a couple weeks ago about this topic and I got the impression that as long as your actions can't be defined as negligent or the pt. hasn't suffered economic or personal injury you should be okay as far severe punishments of the law go.
As for the 250K that is for non licensed health professionals or for a licensed health professional on the 3rd or 4th offense, while licensed health professionals can be fined up to 25k the 1st time. But again remember that the law says that this fine pertains to those who "...knowingly and willfully obtains, discloses, or uses medical information in violation..." (taken from the 2007 CA Pharmacy Lawbook). The Lawbook also states that when a fine is assessed lots of things must be considered such as: defendant's good faith effort to comply w/HIPAA, seriousness of violation, harm to pt, # and persistence of violations, willfulness of violation, and even the defendant's assest and net worth. A common lawyer phrase is "you can't get blood form a turnip", so nobody is going to bother suing you personally for thousands of $ you can't pay.
Just make sure that everyone knows you weren't being negligent or violating HIPAA on purpose and continue to show willingness to remedy the situation.