Massachusetts General Hospital

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Massachusetts General Hospital
The internal control breach that involved Massachusetts General Hospital missing records did turn up the regulatory and enforcement heat in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The requirements of HIPPA provide clear guidelines that require all health care providers, in the United States, to give insightful protection of the private patient information. This protection should be done through physical, administrative and technical internal safeguards. The department of health and human resource service in the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a massive penalty on Massachusetts General Hospital as a measure to enhance their security and privacy regulations (Paxson).
In early 2011, the resolution agreement came into terms with Massachusetts General Hospital, which had combined with its physical organization (Mass General). The term required Mass General to pay a lump sum of $1 million as a settlement amount for misplacing patient information. In addition, Mass General was to have a comprehensive compliance with a collective plan that was established and designated to ensure they improve their procedures for safeguarding patient’s private information. The settlement was made after a massive OCR investigation after an alleged complaint was filed by a patient of Mass General (Reed Exhibitions).
The papers were lost by a manager in the department of infectious disease centre. She had left the paper records in the Red Line train on March 9th, 2009 at a specific time between 7:00 to 9:00am in the morning after carrying them home to work over the weekend. The paper records were never recovered even after a significant search and notification to the transit pol...

... middle of paper ...

...ggin (2009): 1-2.
Microsoft. "microsoft.com." March 2006. 13 March 2014. .
Paxson, Dilworth. "dilworthlaw." 28 February 2011. dilworthlaw.com. 13 March 2014. .
Reed Exhibitions. "infosecurity." 25 February 2011. infosecurity-magazine.com. 13 March 2014. .
The Institute of Internal Auditors. "Internal Auditing's Role In Section 302 and 404 of the U.S Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002." The Institute of Internal Auditors (2004): 1-13.
Valencia, Milton J. "The Boston Globe." 24 March 2009. boston.com. 13 March 2014. .

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