What if I Disclose Confidential Patient Information?

As a physician, your patients place a lot of trust in you to handle their physical and mental care needs. This comes with a lot of blind faith that you will keep their personal healthcare matters private between yourself and them. You may think you are helping your patient by giving health updates to their loved ones or seeking clinical advice from a colleague not directly involved in their case. However, doing so may be considered unacceptable and put you in serious trouble. That said, please read on to discover the likely consequences if you disclose confidential patient information to others, and how one of the seasoned New York physician defense lawyers at Walker Medical Law can help defend your reasoning behind this action.

As a physician, what should I know about HIPAA?

Importantly, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that sets national standards for protecting patient medical records and other personal health information, all while maintaining a transfer and continuation of health insurance coverage. For physicians, this means there is a procedure they must follow for how they share a patient’s information, with whom, and how they store and transmit it electronically.

What happens if I disclose confidential patient information?

You must understand that a HIPAA violation is a grave offense. For one, you may face serious civil penalties should the affected patient choose to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit. Namely, there may be a fine of anywhere between $100 and $50,000 per violation. The extent of this expense may depend on the nature of the violation, such as if you disclosed confidential patient information accidentally or purposefully, and whether you took productive measures to rectify this mistake upon discovery.

On that note, if your HIPAA violation was out of willful neglect, you may also be up against criminal punishments. Specifically, knowingly obtaining or disclosing a patient’s health information may come with a fine of up to $50,000 and a prison sentence of one year. Obtaining information under false pretenses has a fine of up to $100,000 and a prison sentence of up to five years, while obtaining information for commercial advantage, personal gain, or malicious harm has a fine of up to $250,000 and a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

This is not to mention the investigation and hearing conducted by the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) or Office of Professional Discipline (OPD). If, in the end, the Board deems your disclosing this information as a form of medical misconduct, they may impose additional fines and prison sentences separate from your civil and criminal case proceedings. Ultimately, they may suspend or revoke your right to practice medicine.

We can sympathize with how daunting this whole legal battle may be for you. Well, lucky for you, the team at Walker Medical Law has successfully gone through this countless times before. So please, retain the services of one of the competent New York physician defense lawyers today.