The Office of Civil Rights issued its 14th settlement Jan. 12 for its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative.
Phoenix-based Banner Health, on behalf of Banner Health affiliated covered entities, also called Banner Health ACE, agreed to pay $200,000 to settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule's Right of Access standard, which requires healthcare organizations to provide patients with copies of their medical records quickly and at a reasonable cost.
OCR received two complaints against Banner Health ACE alleging violations of the HIPAA Right of Access rule. The first complaint claimed that the individual had requested access to her medical records in December 2017 but did not receive the records until May 2018. The second complaint alleged the patient requested access to an electronic copy of his records in September 2019 but the records weren't sent until February 2020.
Along with the financial settlement, Banner Health will undergo a corrective action plan that includes two years of monitoring by the OCR.