HIPAA Violation: Dentist Responded to an Online Review
On December 14, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a settlement with a dental practice in California over the impermissible disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) in response to online reviews, and other potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. The practice used social media inappropriately responding to a negative online review that disclosed Protected Health Information. The dental practice paid $23,000 to OCR and agreed to implement a corrective action plan (CAP) to resolve this investigation.