Florida Health System Fined $2M for Multiple HIPAA Breaches

A major Florida health system with six hospitals must pay over $2 million after federal officials determined its HIPAA compliance program was in disarray for years.

Federal health officials on Wednesday said they’re fining Jackson Health System in Miami after it lost paper records with protected information for nearly 1,500 patients in 2016.

Agents under a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services also investigated the hospital in 2015 after an operating room photograph containing a patient’s medical information was reported on social media. A statement says the hospital found that two employees had accessed the patient’s electronic medical record without authorization.

In a third incident, an employee accessed over 24,000 patient records and had been selling information since 2011.

Jackson Health treats about 650,000 patients annually and employs about 12,000 people.