The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has imposed a penalty of more than $2 million against the Miami, Fla.-based Jackson Health System (JHS) for multiple violations of HIPAA and breach notification rules between 2013 and 2016.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, of which OCR operates within, in 2013, JHS submitted a breach report to OCR stating that its health information management department had lost paper records containing the protected health information (PHI) of 756 patients in January 2013.
JHS' internal investigation determined that an additional three boxes of patient records were also lost in December 2012; however, JHS did not report the additional loss or the increased number of individuals affected to 1,436, until June 2016, according to the feds.
Then, in 2015, OCR initiated an investigation following a media report that disclosed the PHI of a JHS patient. A reporter had shared a photograph of a JHS operating room screen containing the patient's medical information on social media. JHS then determined that two employees had accessed this patient's medical record without a job-related purpose. This incident made the mainstream news as the patient was then-New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.
In 2016, , JHS submitted a breach report to OCR reporting that an employee had been selling patient PHI. The employee had inappropriately accessed over 24,000 patients' records since 2011.
Given all this, “OCR's investigation revealed that JHS failed to provide timely and accurate breach notification to the Secretary of HHS, conduct enterprise-wide risk analyses, manage identified risks to a reasonable and appropriate level, regularly review information system activity records, and restrict authorization of its workforce members' access to patient ePHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish their job duties,” federal officials stated.
JHS waived its right to a hearing and did not contest the findings in OCR's Notice of Proposed Determination. Accordingly, OCR issued a Notice of Final Determination and JHS has paid the full civil money penalty of $2,154,000.
JHS is a nonprofit academic medical system based in Miami, Fla., which operates six major hospitals, a network of urgent care centers, multiple primary care and specialty care centers, long-term care nursing facilities, and corrections health services clinics. JHS provides health services to approximately 650,000 patients annually, and employs about 12,000 individuals.
"OCR's investigation revealed a HIPAA compliance program that had been in disarray for a number of years," OCR Director Roger Severino said in a statement. "This hospital system's compliance program failed to detect and stop an employee who stole and sold thousands of patient records; lost patient files without notifying OCR as required by law; and failed to properly secure PHI that was leaked to the media."
