Medical Privacy Law Nets No Fines

Medical Privacy Law Nets No Fines

In the three years since Americans gained federal protection for their private medical information, the Bush administration has received thousands of complaints alleging violations but has not imposed a single civil fine and has prosecuted just two criminal cases.

Of the 19,420 grievances lodged so far, the most common allegations have been that personal medical details were wrongly revealed, information was poorly protected, more details were disclosed than necessary, proper authorization was not obtained or patients were frustrated getting their own records.

The government has "closed" more than 73 percent of the cases -- more than 14,000 -- either ruling that there was no violation, or allowing health plans, hospitals, doctors' offices or other entities simply to promise to fix whatever they had done wrong, escaping any penalty.

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What a sick joke...

I guess we can safely assume these protections are one of the 750 laws Bush ignores... ( See here. )

[edit on 5-6-2006 by loam]

Ooh... sore spot for me on this issue.

I have had two instances of HIPPA violations by two of my health providers and that was the answer that I got: Sorry, the doc/office/hospital said they would correct it and not do it again.

Bleh.

JDub