Gunster labor & employment law attorney Brian McPherson contributed to a Healthcare Risk Management article discussing the HIPAA violations in regards to the Jussie Smollett case. According to multiple news outlets, a Chicago hospital fired at least 50 employees for violating HIPAA by improperly accessing the medical records of the actor. According to McPherson, budgetary concerns can be one of many factors that limit security options for some healthcare organizations. “My experience has been that hospitals are not really on top of this until there has been a problem,” he says. “You have too many other things to spend time and money on. If your system seems to be working, nobody pays attention to this issue. But once they have a problem and it becomes public, then they’re on top of it and implement more controls to protect those records.”
McPherson is an experienced business and employment law litigator and counselor who has handled complex employment and commercial lawsuits and arbitrations all across Florida. He has represented a multitude of businesses and executives in a vast array of actions involving most of the Federal and Florida employment laws.
Read the full article: Jussie Smollett incident shows need for HIPAA training, audits
