New York Hospital, Medical School Agree To Pay $4.8 Million in Largest HIPAA Case

New York and Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University have agreed to pay the federal government $4.8 million to settle allegations they didn’t adequately protect patients’ electronic health information.

The settlement is the largest-ever Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act settlement, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights said in a May 7 announcement.

The settlement stems from a 2010 data breach reported jointly by NYP and CU that resulted in thousands of patients’ electronic protected health information (ePHI) being accessible on Internet search engines, the OCR said.

NYP will pay the largest share of the settlement, ...