Billing and Coding Unit 1 Dis

Answer the following questions in your Discussion:

1. Do you agree with the hospital’s reaction? Why or why not?

2. What specific HIPAA or other privacy laws were violated?

3. What steps should an organization take to prevent occurrences like this in the future?

4. Do you have your own story to tell regarding breaches of confidentiality? What have you learned from your own experiences?

Requirement: 150 words in APA format

ARTICLE

Section:

The Week in Healthcare

PRIVACY

Experts wonder if incident will expose HIPAA weakness

Actor George Clooney may have been a good sport after learning 27 employees at North Bergen, N.J.'s Palisades Medical Center were suspended for snooping into his medical records, but at least one privacy advocate says the incident highlights how little protection HIPAA rules give patients and how easy it is for unauthorized personnel to gain access to information.

"Actually, (the peeking) wasn't a HIPAA violation," said Deborah Peel, founder and chairwoman of the advocacy organization Patient Privacy Rights Foundation.

Peel noted that while most hospitals have policies limiting nonessential personnel's access to patient records, under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, any employee of a hospital where patients are treated, as well as payers, certain fundraisers, healthcare service providers and researchers can be granted legal access to patient records. "What happened to George Clooney could happen to anyone, (because) most hospitals have totally miserable and pointless information systems protection" technology, Peel said.

While he couldn't speak to hospitals' technological capabilities, Chris Bennington, a HIPAA specialist with the law firm Bricker & Eckler in Cincinnati, said the case does call attention to how unclear HIPAA laws are even for healthcare workers.

"Under HIPAA, it's not so much who is accessing patient records as it is why they're being accessed," Bennington explained. "There are a lot of exceptions (to HIPAA coverage) and the hospital is a covered entity, but this is a potential violation because of why those employees looked" at Clooney's records.

The snooping incident stems from a Sept. 21 motorcycle crash in which Clooney, 46, was involved. The actor was treated at 202-bed Palisades for a broken rib and scrapes from the accident. Shortly afterward, hospital officials conducted a random audit of electronic patient records and discovered unauthorized personnel had accessed Clooney's information, said Eurice Rojas, Palisades Medical Center's vice president of external affairs. Though Rojas said he couldn't identify the positions of the staffers, he said the 27 workers were suspended for a month without pay after an investigation. The suspensions began in early October. Rojas added that while the hospital would continue to monitor the case, he doesn't expect any additional suspensions or further disciplinary action from the privacy violation.

But while Palisades may be ready to close the case on the violation, American Hospital Association spokeswoman Alicia Mitchell said there is the potential for further disciplinary action against the suspended employees should a complaint be filed with HHS' Office for Civil Rights. "The medical privacy rules apply to everybody, including celebrities," Mitchell noted. "Everybody is entitled to confidentiality of what is often very personal information."

In a written statement, Clooney said that while he believes in patient privacy rights, he hoped no one would be suspended. Peel, however, said she hopes the violation will call attention to how ill-equipped hospitals are to protect patient information.

PHOTO (COLOR): George Clooney and Sarah Lawson were both injured in a motorcycle crash.

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By Shawn Rhea