Hipaa Violation

HIPAA Violation

Hailey Brown

Rasmussen College

Author Note

This paper is being submitted on September 11, 2014, for Gina M. Farrell’s M230 Medical Law and Ethics Course.

HIPAA Violation

There are many HIPAA violations committed by medical facilities every year. Prosecuting these cases, however, is fairly new. The first criminal prosecution of a HIPAA violation was in 2004 and there have only been a few others since then that have been federally prosecuted. HIPAA, also known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is very important in the medical field. These laws are set in place to help protect patients and the employees. For some people, violating these laws are an honest mistake. But for others, they commit the violations for personal gain and just to create chaos and pain in other peoples’ lives. In the following case, a nurse at an Arkansas clinic has been found guilty of a serious HIPAA violation.

Andrea Smith, a licensed practical nurse, pled guilty to the wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information for personal gain and malicious harm. In November, 2006, Andrea Smith worked at the Northeast Arkansas clinic in Jonesboro, Arkansas. At that time, she accessed a patient’s personal information and then gave that information to her husband, Justin Smith. After receiving the information, Justin called the patient and said that he was going to use the information against them in an upcoming legal issue. Andrea Smith now faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. According to U.S. Attorney, Jane W. Duke, “What every HIPAA-covered entity needs to realize and reinforce to its employees is that privacy provisions of HIPAA are serious and have significant consequences if they are violated.”

Releasing a person’s private health information can be very harmful to the patient and their family. This could be both physically and emotionally damaging. The patient went into the doctor expecting to be taken...