DataBreachToday.com reported that “Two former healthcare workers – a medical biller in Florida and an emergency medical technician in New York – have pleaded guilty in two separate federal cases involving the criminal misuse of patient information accessed while performing their jobs. One case involved healthcare fraud and identity theft, and the other criminal HIPAA violations.” The December 6, 2021 reported entitled “Medical Workers Plead Guilty to PHI Access-Related Crimes” included these comments about “…the latest reminders of insider threats facing healthcare entities and their patients’ information.”:
In the first case, the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday said Joshua Maywalt, a former medical biller at a Clearwater, Florida-based company that provided credentialing and medical billing services to healthcare entity clients, pleaded guilty to four counts of healthcare fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft…
The second case involves medical emergency technician Luis Soriano, who prosecutors say pleaded guilty to one count of criminal HIPAA violations committed in connection with his work at three New York-area hospitals between approximately June 2012 and August 2019.
I hope we don’t see more HIPAA crimes!