OCR Announces Fourteenth Settlement of Enforcement Action for Right of Access Initiative

OCR Announces Fourteenth Settlement of Enforcement Action for Right of Access Initiative

The new year brings forth another settlement action for violating the HIPAA Privacy Rule's Right of Access Initiative.

"This first resolution of the year signals that our Right of Access Initiative is still going strong and that providers of all sizes need to respect the right of patients to have timely access to their medical records," said OCR Director Roger Severino.

On January 12, 2021, OCR announced the fourteenth settlement enforcement action. Previously in 2019, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced their priority of supporting individuals' right to having timely access to their health records at a reasonable cost.

Banner Health, on behalf of the Banner Health affiliated covered entities (Banner Health ACE), a large non-profit health system based out of Phoenix, Arizona, has agreed to take corrective actions and pay $200,000 to settle potential violations. To view the resolution agreement and corrective action plan, please click here.

These alleged violations came from two complaints filed against Banner Health ACE entities:

  • A request for an individual's medical records took over a year to be received, the first request being made in December 2017 and received in May 2018.
  • A request for an electronic copy of an individual's records in September 2019, and not received until February 2020.

Could your organization be in a possible violation of the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative? Let us help you with your commitment to compliance; please contact us by email: support@hcp.md or reach us by phone: 855-427-0427. Start your free Compliance Consultation today to see what Healthcare Compliance Pros can do for your organization!