OCR Continues HIPAA Right of Access Fine Streak, Announces 12th Settlement

November 19, 2020

Reporting new HIPAA settlements has become a weekly routine this month (we’ve got our calendars marked for next week’s already), and after today’s announcement on the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) 12th right of access initiative settlement (the third in November), we now have enough patient right of access fines to last us a whole year.

This week’s HIPAA headline goes to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, LLC (UCMC), an academic medical center that provides healthcare services to the Greater Cincinnati Community. UCMC agreed to a $65,000 payout as well as a 2-year corrective action plan with the OCR to settle a violation of (you guessed it) the HIPAA right of access standard. 

The by-now familiar story began back in May of 2019, when the OCR received a complaint that UCMC failed to respond to a patient’s request that her electronic health records (EHR) be sent directly to her lawyers on February 22, 2019. After further investigation and a little push from the OCR, the medical center finally provided the requested records in August of that year. 

While we’ve seen more than a handful (2 handfuls plus two fingers to be exact) of patient right of access fines over the past year, this specific settlement is a great example of not only failing to provide patient records in a timely manner, but also in the proper format they were requested in. It is required under HIPAA law to be able to provide patients with a copy of their records in the format they request – either in paper or electronic form – as well as have the ability to transmit records directly to a third party if specified. If it isn’t possible to provide records the way a patient requests, the covered entity must agree to an alternative method with the requester.

Emphasizing the importance of providing records in the format requested, OCR Director Roger Severino added that the “OCR is committed to enforcing patients’ right to access their medical records, including the right to direct electronic copies to a third party of their choice. HIPAA covered entities should review their policies and training programs to ensure they know and can fulfill all their HIPAA obligations whenever a patient seeks access to his or her records.” 

Today’s settlement brings the running count of 2020 HIPAA fines to a total of $13,291,500 with 6 weeks still left in the year. If the weekly fine trend continues, we could expect at least 6 more HIPAA settlements and a whole lot of $$$ to come rolling in before 2020 finally ends. While we’re all looking forward to 2020 calling it quits, 6 more fines would blow 2019’s enforcement records out of the water. 

With annual HIPAA deadlines right around the corner and weekly examples of why you should ensure your practice is compliant, we couldn’t think of a better time to add HIPAA to the top of your to-do list!

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