Recycled Medical Records Used As Scrap Paper At Elementary School

Parents with students at Hale Elementary School in Minneapolis have found something interesting on the back of their children's pictures hanging on the fridge, detailed medical information. From the article: "Jennifer Kane was tidying her dining room when she found the drawing by her daughter, Keely, who goes to Hale Elementary School. On the back of the paper was the name, birth date and detailed medical information for a 24-year-old St. Paul woman named Paula White. 'The more I read it, the more alarmed I became about the amount of information I had about this person,' said Kane." The security lapse has been blamed on a paralegal donating the paper to the school.

Comments

Re:HIPAA fail

[Alan Shutko]

Maybe not... The law firm is probably not a HIPAA covered agency. If the law firm got the records because their client was a covered entity, they might be in trouble under HIPAA. If they got the records because they were suing a covered entity, they probably aren't in trouble under HIPAA. They'd still be in trouble for disclosing private information, though.

Here's a writeup.

Re:HIPAA fail

[Talderas]

There is no maybe about it. If the law firm is representing a covered entity then they have to comply with HIPAA regulations. This has been the case since February 17, 2010.

You are also right on if the lawyer was not representing a covered entity. If they had acquired the information while representing a client bringing a lawsuit against a hospital then they aren't covered by HIPAA.