U of Cincinnati Medical Center to pay $65K HIPAA fine for not sending patient's records to third party

University of Cincinnati Medical Center agreed Nov. 19 to pay a $65,000 fine for failing to timely meet a patient's request to send copies of her electronic medical records to her lawyers.  

UCMC agreed to the settlement for violating the HIPAA Right of Access standard, which requires providers to give patients access to their health records quickly and without being overcharged. The settlement marks OCR's 12th under the initiative since closing its first case in September 2019.

OCR received a complaint in May 2019 from a UCMC patient claiming that the hospital failed to send an electronic copy of her medical records to her layers. The patient made the request Feb. 19, 2019.

OCR launched an investigation and determined that UCMC failed to timely provide a copy of the patient's medical records, which violated the HIPAA rules deeming that patients have the right to request electronic copies of their records in the EHR be sent directly to a third party. The patient received her records in August 2019.

In addition to the financial settlement, UCMC will undergo a corrective action plan and two years of monitoring by OCR.

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