HIPAA Access Violation Costs Provider $85,000

A Florida primary care and pain management practice that calls itself Korunda Medical Institute has paid the federal government $85,000 to settle a violation of HIPAA’s right of access provisions. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the settlement on December 12.

A Korunda patient filed a complaint with HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) after Korunda failed to provide the patient’s medical records to a third party timely in electronic form as requested, and charged the patient more than the fees that HIPAA allows. OCR responded to the complaint and contacted Korunda, but the records were still not provided timely. After the patient complained to OCR again, OCR again intervened and Korunda finally provided the records in the requested format.

The Korunda settlement illustrates that OCR’s “Right of Access Initiative” may ensnare small providers as well as larger hospitals. There has been a recent focus on HIPAA access violations, as discussed here.