The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a $1.19 million civil monetary penalty against Gulf Coast Pain Consultants, LLC d/b/a Clearway Pain Solutions Institute (Gulf Coast Pain Consultants) in Florida, concerning violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule, following receipt of a breach report that a former contractor for the company had impermissibly accessed their electronic record system. OCR initiated an investigation following the receipt of a breach report filed by Gulf Coast Pain Consultants, which reported that a former contractor had impermissibly accessed Gulf Coast’s electronic medical record system to retrieve protected health information (PHI) for use in potential fraudulent Medicare claims. OCR’s investigation determined that the impermissible access occurred on three occasions, affecting approximately 34,310 individuals. The compromised PHI included patient names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, chart numbers, insurance information, and primary care information.
