The Office for Civil Rights announced its ninth settlement Oct. 9 for its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative, which requires providers to give patients access to their medical records quickly and without being overcharged.
NY Spine Medicine in New York City agreed to pay $100,000 for violating the Right of Access rule. In July 2019, OCR received a complaint from an individual who claimed she made multiple requests to NY Spine Medicine for a copy of her medical records that June. While the medical practice provided some of the patient's records, it did not give her the diagnostic films she specifically requested.
OCR launched an investigation and found that NY Spine Medicine's failure to provide timely access to all the requested medical records was a potential violation of the Right of Access standard. After OCR's investigation, the patient received all her requested medical records in October 2020.
In addition to the financial settlement, NY Spine Medicine will undergo a corrective action plan that includes two years of monitoring by the OCR.
OCR settled its first HIPAA Right of Access case in September 2019 with Bayfront Health St. Petersburg (Fla.). The agency most recently reached an agreement with Dignity Health to settle its eighth case under the initiative.