HIPAA

This is in no way condoning the action of the security, etc. in this story but this is what I know.

I work for a hospital system and have to attend a refresher HIPAA course every year. Because of how the laws are currently written and have been interpreted by the judicial system, everyone falls under the HIPAA guidelines. Providers have to "self report" HIPAA violations or risk fines and losing their Medicare & Medicaid business. The picture with the doctor's daughter picture teeny tiny in the background in a picture on the internet violated that child's right to privacy. What if someone copied it and blew it up and figured out who the picture was of? What if that girl was wearing a school softball shirt? Someone could figure out her name and location. The possiblities are endless.

There cannot be any logo, hospital, doctor, etc. name in the pictures you take that can later lead to identifying patients, workers, etc. And it isn't just pictures, if someone overhears a conversation about a patient's medical status and tells someone who can figure out who the patient is and tells them, the worker is violating HIPAA. Workers who violate HIPAA face immediate termination if caught. On top of that, the government workers that enforce HIPAA are extremely into their jobs. Every time someone gets fired because of HIPAA, we have to go through training again.