Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun is staying all over the UMC breach reported here previously. In today’s commentary, he reviews the findings of past audits of UMC’s HIPAA compliance:
University Medical Center, facing a possible FBI investigation for allowing confidential patient information to be leaked to outsiders, has a spotty record of adhering to patient privacy laws, Clark County auditors have previously found.
Three county audits since June 2007 showed that although UMC employees are almost universally aware of the patient privacy policies mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, they have had a more difficult time with implementation.
Failure by the UMC workforce to comply with privacy safeguards “makes the hospital vulnerable” to compromising patient information, county auditors wrote Sept. 15.
Read more in the Las Vegas Sun.