On December 15, The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced another settlement of their HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. According to the information released through the OCR Listserv, “Health Specialists of Central Florida Inc. paid $20,000 to OCR and agreed to implement a corrective action plan (CAP) to resolve this investigation.” The CAP will be monitored by OCR for two years. This is the 42nd HIPAA Right of Access Initiative case to be settled by OCR.
The release stated “In August 2019, a complaint was filed by a daughter acting as a personal representative on behalf of her deceased father, who had been a patient of Health Specialists of Central Florida Inc. The complainant alleged that Health Specialists of Central Florida Inc. had failed to provide her with timely access to the requested medical records, despite multiple requests.
OCR’s investigation determined that Health Specialists of Central Florida Inc.’s failure to provide timely access to the requested medical records was a potential violation of the HIPAA right of access standard, which requires a covered entity to take action on an access request within 30 days of receipt (or within 60 days if an extension is applicable). As a result of OCR’s investigation, the daughter finally received all of the requested records, nearly five months after her initial request.”