Memphis, TN – A federal grand jury has indicted 5 previous Methodist Medical center Employees for conspiring with Roderick Harvey, 40, to unlawfully disclose patient information in violation of the Wellbeing Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, frequently known as “HIPAA.” United States Lawyer Kevin G. Ritz introduced the indictment nowadays.
HIPAA was enacted by Congress in 1996 to create national standards to guard delicate individual details from getting disclosed with out a patient’s expertise or consent. HIPAA’s provisions make it a criminal offense to disclose affected person info, or to attain patient facts with the intent to promote, transfer or use such info for own achieve.
According to the indictment, concerning November 2017 and December 2020, Harvey paid Kirby Dandridge, 38, Sylvia Taylor, 43, Kara Thompson, 30, Melanie Russell, 41, and Adrianna Taber, 26, to deliver him with names and telephone figures of Methodist patients who experienced been involved in motor car or truck incidents. Immediately after acquiring the data, Harvey bought the details to 3rd individuals which includes own personal injury attorneys and chiropractors.
The conspiracy charge carries a highest penalty of five decades imprisonment, a fantastic of $250,000 and a few-year period of time of supervised release.
Harvey was also charged with seven counts of obtaining affected individual information and facts with the intent to offer it for financial get on many dates in between November 12, 2017, and September 7, 2019. Every single of individuals charges carries a utmost penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment, a wonderful of $250,000 and 3 years’ of supervised launch.
Dandridge, Taylor, Thompson, Russell, and Taber ended up each and every charged with independent violations of disclosing the details to Harvey in violation of HIPAA. That charge carries a maximum penalty of a single calendar year imprisonment, a $50,000 good and a just one-12 months period of time of supervised launch.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
United States Lawyer Kevin Ritz thanked Assistant United States Attorney Carroll L. André III, who is prosecuting the situation.
The costs and allegations in the indictment are basically accusations, and the defendants are presumed harmless until and right until demonstrated guilty.
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