A $182,000 settlement has been agreed between the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights and five Delaware healthcare providers to resolve alleged violations of the HIPAA Privacy and HIPAA Breach Notification Rules. The settlement concerns the posting of patients’ protected health information (PHI) on social media without first obtaining HIPAA-compliant authorizations to use PHI for a purpose not expressly permitted by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, then failing to notify individuals about the impermissible use and disclosure.
Cadia Healthcare is a provider of rehabilitation, skilled nursing, and long-term care services at five facilities in Delaware. Those facilities are Cadia Rehabilitation Broadmeadow in Middletown, Cadia Rehabilitation Renaissance in Millsboro, Cadia Rehabilitation Capital in Dover, and Cadia Rehabilitation Pike Creek and Cadia Rehabilitation Silverside in Wilmington, collectively referred to as the Cadia Healthcare Facilities (Cadia).
Each of the Cadia facilities is a HIPAA-covered entity that is required to comply with the HIPAA Rules. OCR launched an investigation after receiving a complaint on September 20, 2021, about an alleged impermissible disclosure of PHI online. The complainant alleged that Cadia had used their photograph, name, and information about their condition, treatment, and recovery in an online post but had not obtained authorization to use the information for that purpose…