Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 18 (May 11, 2020)
◆ The HHS Office for Civil Rights has posted[1] guidance reminding providers that “the COVID-19 public health emergency does not alter the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s existing restrictions on disclosures of protected health information (PHI) to the media.”
◆ The HHS Office of Inspector General on May 8 again updated its answers to FAQs[2] about the application of administrative enforcement authorities to arrangements connected to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
◆ A Michigan registered nurse (RN) said he was falsely accused of a HIPAA violation and fired after he raised safety concerns about his hospital’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Justin Howe, who worked at Hackley Hospital in Muskegon, Michigan, for Mercy Health, told local media outlets he had spoken out in late March about his concerns. He said that hospital officials accused him of a HIPAA violation and fired him 10 days later. “They are false allegations,” he told the local ABC affiliate station.[3] The Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) labor union took Howe’s side in the dispute, saying Howe was terminated “shortly after doing multiple media interviews raising concerns about the hospital’s preparedness and the safety of RNs and health care professionals … The Michigan Nurses Association believes that Howe’s termination is a violation of federal labor law and has filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board.”[4] According to the affiliate station’s report, Mercy Health said in a statement that Howe’s allegation that he was terminated for raising safety concerns is “emphatically false” and added, “Mr. Howe was terminated from Mercy Health for violating the privacy of multiple patients over a period of days by entering into their electronic medical chart without a need to do so. It’s notable that the patient records that Mr. Howe inappropriately accessed were all treated at a different hospital campus than where Mr. Howe works.” Mercy Health said that Howe and the Michigan Nurses Association “are well aware of the facts that led to Mr. Howe’s termination as an MNA representative was included in the investigation and termination process wherein Mr. Howe was confronted with the evidence of his own acts.”