The federal government has fined three Boston hospitals nearly $1 million for potential HIPAA violations regarding a documentary series.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday, Sept. 20, its separate settlement agreements with Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Boston Medical Center for the privacy violation.
According to the release, the hospitals compromised the “privacy of patients’ protected health information by inviting film crews on premises to film an ABC television network documentary series without first obtaining authorization from patients.”
The hospitals were fined a total of $999,000 to settle the potential violation. Massachusetts General Hospital paid $515,000, Brigham and Women’s Hospital paid $384,000 and the Boston Medical Center paid $100,000.
“Patients in hospitals expect to encounter doctors and nurses when getting treatment, not film crews recording them at their most private and vulnerable moments,” HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Roger Severino said in a statement. “Hospitals must get authorization from patients before allowing strangers to have access to patients and their medical information.”
Per the separate agreements, the hospitals all denied violating any HIPAA privacy rules.
Danielle covers Clinical Innovation & Technology as a senior news writer for TriMed Media. Previously, she worked as a news reporter in northeast Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She's also a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bears and Bulls.