Sunday, August 22, 2004

First-ever HIPAA conviction.

I'm not sure we needed HIPAA in order to prosecute the conduct described in this press release, but that's the statute that was used by the US Attorney in Seattle to convict Richard Gibson, who admitted that he "obtained a cancer patient's name, date of birth and social security number while [he] was employed at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and that he disclosed that information to get four credit cards in the patient's name. G[ibson] also admitted that he used several of those cards to rack up more than $9,000 in debt in the patient's name. [He] admitted he used the cards to purchase various items, including video games, home improvement supplies, apparel, jewelry, porcelain figurines, groceries and gasoline for his personal use."

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