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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Maryland AG Says Patient Photos Trigger HIPAA: Did WMDT & Firefighter Violate HIPAA Laws?

The Maryland Attorney General’s office has issued a memo to EMS providers and personnel stating that photos taken of patients who are identifiable constitutes “individually identifiable health information” under HIPAA, the release of which through any means (including social media) is a violation.

The memo was dated May 30, 2013 and began being circulated to local and regional EMS providers this week. It was issued by Assistant Attorney General Sarah M. Sette.

Quoting from the memo, HIPAA applies to “photographs of patients taken by EMS providers if the patient can be identified, whether directly through their features, or indirectly through unique clothing or a license plate or the nature of the particular injury or motor vehicle crash or event. Similarly, a photograph of a medical record such as EKG, or a unique injury or treatment, might also be susceptible to being linked to a specific patient.

“Accordingly, distributing such a photograph, whether via email, by posting it on Facebook, or through other media, may be an unauthorized disclosure of protected health information and violate HIPAA.”


The memo also discusses the penalties that violators face, including fines of up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison, and the fact that Maryland state law governing medical confidentiality, Health General Article, Sections 4-30 l, et seq., is also applicable and carries fines of up to $250,000, imprisonment, and possible civil liability to the victims.

Here is a copy of the memo. MD EMS Social Media

For those concerned, neither HIPAA nor state medical confidentiality laws prohibit the taking of photos, dash or helmet cam video, or other types of imagery. What is required is that any imagery that shows an identifiable patient must be treated as part of the patient’s confidential medical record.

Publishers Notes: If you click on the link above, MD EMS Social Media you'll find far more details. For example: "including demographic information"

I bring this to light because of what an EMT/Firefighter and WMDT News brought to the public by producing photographs of the interior of a local mans home after he passed. If you can identify the patient/victim by association, your in violation. 

Another format we researched stated the following: This definition includes photographs of patients taken by EMS providers if the patient can be identified, whether directly or indirectly. Health information that neither identifies nor provides a reasonable basis to identify an individual can be shared.
Under HIPAA, information related to a patient’s medical condition is deemed to identify the patient if it contains any of the following identifiers of the individual or of relatives, employers, or household members of the individual:
(A) Names
(B) All geographic subdivisions smaller than a state, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of the Census:
(1) the geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the
same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and
(2) the initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic
units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000.

Source

GO HERE to view our original article.

26 comments:

  1. Impressive research Joe ! I really have a problem with the yahoos that run the facebook and web sites in the fire departments that post pictures before even the family can be notified. It's all about them blowing their own horn.

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  2. I submitted a Hippa complaint to the State of Md against PRMC. They were provided clear and precise evidence of wrong doing. Complete with clear physical document ion that was available on social media. They did nothing......so I have little faith that this will go any further in protecting these types of actions moving forward.

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  3. Several sites have closed down that used to be ambulance chasers. Good riddance! SFD could use much better judgement, just look at their web page.

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  4. 9:44, Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every so often. Don't give up. Report it and see what happens. IF I followed your lead, there would be no Salisbury News. There are many battles we lose, take Lore' Chambers for example. Never give up.

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  5. 9:44 Hippa violations enforced by the State have little affect. However, with the EMS service, the provider can loose their certification and job. It's about time. They need to do their dam job! It used to be about the patient, now it's become a show an tell.

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  6. If the FARMEN would spend half the effort helping someone as they spend being Jerry Springers, maybe they would earn the respect they think their entitled to.

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  7. I live in Berlin and we have many bad car crashes on 113. now the dispatch posts the pictures of cars where someone died, just look at their site a couple weeks ago. very sad for the family, I hope they rot in hell. it hurts, just let it happen to their family.

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    Replies
    1. Rubber neckers will. Remember everyone has a camera nowadays.

      Delete
  8. 9:44-Expect HIPPA defenders to begin commenting.The last time I made a comment about another HIPPA issue they came up with all sorts of reasons why the issue at hand didn't apply to them.This could get interesting.

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    Replies
    1. Please get it right... it's HIPAA.

      Delete
  9. 9:44 AS ALWAYS! It's the nay sayers that preach freedom of speech, UNTILL IT AFFECTS THEM!

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  10. HIPAA NOT HIPPA at least get that right folks.

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  11. Of course they broke the law. You can't go take a P without breaking SOME law. When I drive into town I accidentally break the "law" several times.

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  12. Hoppes doesn't have enough leadership or care to do anything other than collect a big fat paycheck, almost as big as himself. Any deviation from this ruling constitutes malfeasance and he should be fired.

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  13. Wmdt had not violated hippa. They aren't medical providers in any form. They weren't on scene at the time. The fire company and that EMT are in a world of shit. Only hope to win is the patient was no longer a patient because he was deceased.

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  14. Hippa, Hippa, hippa, hippa, hippa, hippa, hippa, hippa, hippa, hippa! !!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous Anonymous said...
    It's HIPAA, not HIPPA.

    December 10, 2014 at 12:47 PM
    Anonymous Anonymous said...
    Please get it right... it's HIPAA.

    December 10, 2014 at 12:50 PM

    Yeah because that is oh so important

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  16. Damn right it's important 6:47-If they do absolutely nothing as we all suspect they will at least we'll know how to spell them.

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  17. 4:08 Even the deceased are entitled to some level of decent privacy, just because you are no longer among the living is no reason to drag skeletons out of the closest!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blame the law. If I shoot a dead person I receive no charges. They're dead. I'm not saying it is right. I'm saying it just is

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    2. Actually you do. It's against the law to desecrate a corpse...

      Delete
  18. Anonymous Anonymous said...
    Hoppes doesn't have enough leadership or care to do anything other than collect a big fat paycheck, almost as big as himself. Any deviation from this ruling constitutes malfeasance and he should be fired.

    December 10, 2014 at 1:05 PM

    A big fat paycheck for a big fat wannabe Farmin.

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    Replies
    1. You always say farmin. I'm glad. It makes it easier to point out the areas most idiotic person. I truly hate you. So disrespectful. Not all FARMIN deserve the sewage you spew.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous said...
    Hoppes doesn't have enough leadership or care to do anything other than collect a big fat paycheck, almost as big as himself. Any deviation from this ruling constitutes malfeasance and he should be fired.

    December 10, 2014 at 1:05 PM

    You better be careful or BR will try to come to the rescues and "sign" his name to look like the good guy when we know it's really him talking about the fat guy many times under anonymous.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I thought it was HIPPO!

    ReplyDelete

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