California laws increased fines for privacy breaches of patient's medical records
24 11 08 - 13:19
Laws bolster penalties for privacy breaches in California
In the wake of multiple high-profile cases of snooping, the state cracks down on unauthorized looks at medical files.
By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff
Eyes will be on California starting next year, but they won't be peeking into medical records.
At least that's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hope; in September he signed into law two bills that put some teeth into patient privacy rules and give doctors good reason to comply.
Under the new laws taking effect Jan. 1, 2009, the state has significantly increased fines not only for the illegal use of medical records but also for unauthorized access of records. The laws also open the door for patients to sue doctors when their records are accessed, even if there is no damage.
Other states have privacy laws that require notification of a breach, but the California bills are thought by experts to be the first to place a strong focus on enforcement.
Experts predict California's actions will lead to more states following suit, as well as tougher enforcement of HIPAA privacy and security rules, which have gone largely unenforced since they took effect in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
For physicians, "the idea behind all this is don't wait until the 500-pound gorilla is pounding on your door," said attorney Peter MacKoul, president of Sugar Land, Texas-based HIPAA Solution, a consultancy that helps practices become HIPAA-compliant. "It's called preventative action."
About the same time the California governor signed the two patient privacy bills into law, a report published by the California Health Dept. found snooping incidents at the UCLA Medical Center were much worse than initially thought. The study found that since 2003, hospital workers inappropriately accessed the electronic medical records of 1,041 patients, including those of California first lady Maria Shriver. Some of those employees were feeding celebrity information to the media, the report said.