There’s a major drawback to being a big name in the media capital of the world: A little thing called HIPAA. New York-Presbyterian Hospital has agreed to pay a $2.2 million fine to the federal government to settle charges that it disclosed personal data without patient consent to TV crews.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights said that the hospital made an “egregious disclosure” of two patients’ protected health information to the crew and staff of the ABC documentary series, “NY Med.”
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While New York-Presbyterian did not officially admit to any HIPAA violations as part of the settlement agreement, OCR did not mince words in its public statement. “By allowing individuals receiving urgent medical care to be filmed without their authorization by members of the media, NYP’s actions blatantly violate the HIPAA rules, which were specifically designed to prohibit the disclosure of individual’s PHI, including images, in circumstances such as these,” OCR said.
“In particular, OCR found that NYP allowed the ABC crew to film someone who was dying and another person in significant distress, even after a medical professional urged the crew to stop,” the statement added.
OCR, which conducts civil enforcement of the HIPAA privacy and security rules, said that the hospital gave show producers “virtually unfettered access to its healthcare facility, effectively creating an environment where PHI could not be protected from impermissible disclosure to the ABC film crew and staff.”
In addition to paying the fine, New York-Presbyterian will allow OCR to monitor its privacy practices for the next two years, as part of the settlement.
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According to the Associated Press, the hospital still maintains its innocence.
The hospital said its goal was to educate the public about important health issues and the filming didn’t violate the federal patient privacy rule.
“This program, and the others that preceded it, garnered critical acclaim, and raised the public’s consciousness of important public health issues, including organ transplantation and donation,” New York-Presbyterian spokeswoman Karen Sodomick said. “It also vividly depicted how our emergency department medical team works tirelessly every day to save patients’ lives.”
(Unfortunately, the AP also called the law in question “HIPPA” twice and compounded its mistake by saying, “HIPPA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which was enacted in 1996.” That is the correct full name of the law.
“NY Med,” which followed NYP surgeons for eight episodes that aired in 2012, is the third iteration of ABC’s hospital documentary series. The network previously produced “Hopkins” and “Boston Med.”
One of the surgeons, not directly involved in the privacy case, was a certain Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
