Florida Healthcare Provider Hit with $1.19M Penalty for Data Breach
National Law Review
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Contributed by: Drex DeFord
Summary
A Florida pain management healthcare provider is facing a $1.19 million penalty from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services due to a data breach involving unauthorized access by an independent contractor. This breach, which affected the electronic protected health information of approximately 34,310 individuals and led to the creation of around 6,500 fraudulent Medicare claims, occurred between September 2018 and February 2019. Investigations revealed that the contractor retained access to the provider's systems for six months after their termination. The Office for Civil Rights found that the provider did not conduct adequate risk analysis and lacked policies for regular review of ePHI access, resulting in significant security failures.
