The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced its first HIPAA penalty of 2020. The practice of Steven A. Porter, M.D., has agreed to pay a financial penalty of $100,000 to resolve potential violations of the HIPAA Security Rule and will adopt a corrective action plan to address all areas of noncompliance discovered during the compliance investigation.

Dr. Porter’s practice in Ogden, UT provides gastroenterological services to more than 3,000 patients. OCR launched an investigation following a report of a data breach in November 13, 2013. The breach concerned a business associate of Dr. Porter’s electronic medical record (EHR) company which was allegedly impermissibly using patients’ electronic medical records by blocking the practice’s access to ePHI until Dr. Porter paid the company $50,000.

The breach investigation uncovered serious violations of the HIPAA Security Rule at the practice. At the time of the audit, Dr. Porter had never conducted a risk analysis to identify risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of ePHI, in violation of 45 C.F.R. § 164.308(a)(1)(i), the practice had not reduced risks to a reasonable and appropriate level, and had not implemented policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations…

Here’s the full article: https://www.hipaajournal.com/hhs-office-for-civil-rights-announces-first-hipaa-penalty-of-2020/.