Jackson Health System

About this report

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has imposed a civil money penalty of $2,154,000 against Jackson Health System (JHS) for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security and Breach Notification Rules between 2013 and 2016. JHS is a nonprofit academic medical system based in Miami, Florida, which operates six major hospitals, a network of urgent care centers, multiple primary care and specialty care centers, long-term care nursing facilities, and corrections health services clinics. JHS provides health services to approximately 650,000 patients annually, and employs about 12,000 individuals. On August 22, 2013, JHS submitted a breach report to OCR stating that its Health Information Management Department had lost paper records containing the protected health information (PHI) of 756 patients in January 2013. JHS's internal investigation determined that an additional three boxes of patient records were also lost in December 2012; however, JHS did not report the additional loss or the increased number of individuals affected to 1,436, until June 7, 2016. In July 2015, OCR initiated an investigation following a media report that disclosed the PHI of a JHS patient. A reporter had shared a photograph of a JHS operating room screen containing the patient's medical information on social media. JHS subsequently determined that two employees had accessed this patient's electronic medical record without a job-related purpose. On February 19, 2016, JHS submitted a breach report to OCR reporting that an employee had been selling patient PHI. The employee had inappropriately accessed over 24,000 patients' records since 2011. OCR's investigation revealed that JHS failed to provide timely and accurate breach notification to the Secretary of HHS, conduct enterprise-wide risk analyses, manage identified risks to a reasonable and appropriate level, regularly review information system activity records, and restrict authorization of its workforce members' access to patient ePHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish their job duties. JHS waived its right to a hearing and did not contest the findings in OCR's Notice of Proposed Determination. Accordingly, OCR issued a Notice of Final Determination and JHS has paid the full civil money penalty. "OCR's investigation revealed a HIPAA compliance program that had been in disarray for a number of years," said OCR Director Roger Severino. "This hospital system's compliance program failed to detect and stop an employee who stole and sold thousands of patient records; lost patient files without notifying OCR as required by law; and failed to properly secure PHI that was leaked to the media." The Notice of Proposed Determination and Notice of Final Determination may be found at: http://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/compliance-enforcement/agreements/jackson/index.html.

Summary as published by the HHS Office for Civil Rights.