By now, you know all about the professional and ethical obligations you hold as a medical student and future physician. A physician is a profession that demands public trust, and you can't establish or maintain that trust if you haven't developed ethics that are beyond reproach. A big part of doing that is abiding by HIPPA privacy and protected health information (PHI) regulations.
Of course, HIPPA is a U.S. law. If you're attending a medical school in an independent Caribbean country, it won't apply, and the country where you're studying may or may not have equivalent laws. For example, the Barbados Data Protection Act of 2019 does offer some protection for personal data, but that protection only extends to the collection of data by public authorities. The Jamaica Data Protection Act of 2020 protects information gathered by both public and private entities but includes a number of exceptions for reasons including legal obligations and the public interest. Grenada, in contrast, has no data protection laws at all.
As it turns out, that may not matter. You will be dealing with HIPPA at some point. Many Caribbean schools send students to the States for clinical rotations. U.S. rotations mean you need to know how this law works.
Before we get into all the ins and outs of HIPPA, though, you should know that any time your med school is threatening you with a sanction over a HIPPA violation or any other sort of misconduct, there's help available. Joseph D. Lento and his Education Law Team work with students at all levels, including medical school students. They know the law, and they know how your school operates. When your future is on the line, no one gives you a better chance to defend yourself than Joseph D. Lento and his team.
What is HIPPA and How Does it Work?
Let's start with the basics. Just what is HIPPA, and how does it work? The Health Insurance and Accountability Act, or HIPPA, is a federal US law, originally passed in 2000, that gives patients control over their own medical records. It establishes rules and regulations for how to deal with patient medical information, guarantees patient privacy by restricting access to records, and establishes strict guidelines for how and when records can be shared.
You can understand the need for HIPPA. Information about our health—about our bodies—can be among the most private of information. We keep most of our bodies hidden most of the time, and an illness can feel like a vulnerability. HIPPA encodes many of the ethical principles that already guide physicians, including the Hippocratic commitment to do patients no harm. In other words, you should be putting HIPPA ideas into practice already. The law's privacy protections are particularly important in an age of digital records when personal identifiable information is stored online, and sharing sometimes involves no more than a keystroke. HIPPA also serves the practical purpose of preventing your insurance company or employers from using your medical history against you.
The law is administered by the US Department of Health and Human Services through its Office of Civil Rights (OCR). This office is responsible for receiving complaints, investigating allegations, and enforcing the law through punitive sanctions. In addition, the OCR conducts regular compliance reviews and has the authority to sanction a physician or healthcare facility even if it hasn't received a specific outside complaint.
What Constitutes a HIPPA Violation?
Of course, when most people think about HIPPA, they think about privacy violations. They imagine a doctor, a nurse, or a hospital administrator sharing confidential information about their health with someone who's not authorized to know that information.
That's certainly an important component of HIPPA, and in itself can make the law difficult to follow, especially in a world where data is stored online precisely so it can be accessed easily and where it seems like increasingly nothing is private anymore. It may seem like a losing battle, the idea that you can keep anything secret in this day and age, but again, doing so is one of the most important components of establishing trust as a physician, both with your patients and with your larger community.
There are a number of other components of HIPPA, though, and these can sometimes be even more difficult to implement correctly.
- Privacy isn't just about avoiding sins of commission. It's about avoiding sins of omission as well. That is, refraining from sharing information deliberately isn't enough. As a medical professional, you are required to put safeguards in place to protect health information. That can mean anything from paying for database security to holding in-service seminars on HIPPA for your support staff.
- At the same time, you must be able to provide information to the people it matters to most: your patients. You are required to provide patients access to their health records. This means not only that you must be able to give patients their records but that you must be able to do so in a timely fashion.
- Finally, there are others with whom it is often important to be able to share medical information—such as your patients' other healthcare providers. However, even in such cases, you have a responsibility to disclose no more than the minimum necessary health information about your patients. This requires making complex judgment calls about just what is “necessary” information and what isn't.
The bottom line is it's not always easy to avoid HIPPA violations. The rules are complex, and it is certainly possible to make mistakes even when you have the best of intentions. If you're facing the consequences for a HIPPA violation, it's important you contact Joseph D. Lento and his Education Law Team immediately to find out how they can help.
What Penalties Can You Face for HIPPA Violations?
The legal penalties for HIPPA violations in the US are steep. The American Medical Association (AMA) lists these civil sanctions for potential violations:
- Unknowing penalty: $100 - $50,000 per violation with an annual maximum of $25,000 for repeat violations
- Reasonable cause penalty: $1000 - $50,000 per violation with an annual maximum of $100,000 for repeat violations
- Willful neglect corrected within the required time period: $10,000 - $50,000 per violation, with an annual maximum of $250,000 for repeat violations
- Willful neglect that is not corrected within the required time period: $50,000 per violation, with an annual maximum of $1.5 million
Those who violate HIPPA can also face criminal prosecution. Knowingly obtaining or disclosing protected information can earn a prison sentence of up to a year, while those who commit violations under false pretenses can face up to five years in prison.
In other words, there's simply too much on the line to try and handle a HIPPA violation allegation on your own, even if you're a med student. You need help from Attorney Joseph D. Lento and his team.
Why Should HIPPA Matter to You as a Caribbean Med Student?
At this point, you may be asking yourself, why should I care about HIPPA? Unless you're studying in Peurto Rico, you're probably in a country where HIPPA doesn't apply. There are at least two important reasons why it should matter to you, though.
- First, if you're going to complete your medical degree, you'll likely have to spend at least some time in the States. Caribbean medical schools hold classes locally, but they contract with US hospitals and clinics for students to perform clinical rotations. St. George's University, for example, is located in Grenada, but it sends its students for clinical rotations to US locations as diverse as Baton Rouge, LA, Alameda, CA, and Manhattan, NY. That means you'll spend at least two years—typically years three and four—in the States. While there, you'll be expected to follow all HIPPA requirements.
- Of course, if you're looking to eventually be licensed to practice in the US, you won't just be subject to HIPPA for a couple of years but for the remainder of your medical career.
For these reasons, most medical schools in the Caribbean include HIPPA as part of their curriculum. If, for some reason, yours doesn't, you should take the time to research this key American law. In all likelihood, you will be subject to it at some point.
How Can Your School Penalize You?
As a medical student, you won't be individually liable under HIPPA yet. However, the health care facility where you fulfill your clinical or clerkship hours certainly will be, and they can be punished for your mistakes. As you might expect, then, should you commit a HIPPA violation, you can face severe sanctions from your medical school.
Medical school sanctions can range anywhere from a warning to a notation in your permanent record to outright dismissal from the program. At St. George's University Caribbean Medical School, for example, first offenses receive probation. Further offenses, though, can result in expulsion from the program. Sabu University's Program of Medicine mentions "disciplinary counseling, fines, probation, suspension, dismissal and/or any other sanction(s) that the Associate Dean (or designee) determines is appropriate."
Keep in mind, too, that these sanctions can have long-lasting effects. Of course, if you should be dismissed from your school, you'll find it difficult, if not impossible, to find another medical school to accept you. In all likelihood, you'll be facing the end of your medical career. Once you are no longer enrolled, any student loans you've taken out will begin coming due, and you won't have the benefit of a medical degree to help you pay them back.
Even if the sanction is just a warning, though, that can hurt your career if it is placed in your file. When it comes time to seek licensure, wherever you may be hoping to practice medicine, you'll be asked to explain your violation. In fact, even if it doesn't appear in your records, one of the most common questions from licensing boards is whether or not you have committed any form of misconduct.
Put simply, you cannot afford to take any allegation lightly. If you're facing any allegations of a HIPPA violation, you need an attorney who understands HIPPA and who has experience dealing with medical school faculty and administrators. You need someone from the Lento Law Firm.
How Do You Defend Yourself?
The good news is that, as with any misconduct allegation, if you've been charged with a HIPPA violation, you have the right to defend yourself. This is especially true if you are facing a serious sanction like a dismissal.
Of course, judicial procedures vary from school to school. However, you can expect your school will have a committee made up of faculty, administrators, staff, and other students that handles all misconduct issues. For instance, the Medical School of the Americas maintains a Disciplinary Committee.
Typically, schools allow you to defend yourself at a formal hearing. At this hearing, you may argue your case, submit evidence, and call witnesses to testify on your behalf. You should also be able to cross-examine any witnesses against you.
At many schools, you have the right to legal representation if you are facing expulsion or, at a minimum, to be accompanied by an attorney. Even if you are not allowed to bring an attorney with you, though, they can be a crucial element in putting together your defense.
Joseph D. Lento and his team can help you
- Develop a defense strategy
- Understand your school's judicial system
- Collect evidence
- Interview witnesses
- Negotiate with school officials
- Draft documents
- Prepare to present your case
What Can Joseph D. Lento and His Team Do For You?
You've put in a lot of work—blood, sweat, and tears—to make it to this point. You can't afford to let anything stand in your way now. A HIPPA violation is a serious offense. Even if you aren't facing charges from the US justice system or civil litigation from a patient, you are still subject to serious consequences. At a minimum, your future as a doctor could be in jeopardy.
You don't have to simply accept that outcome, though. You have rights, and Joseph D. Lento and his Education Law Team are fully prepared to help you assert those rights. They know the law. They also know how medical schools operate. They've worked with hundreds of medical students to get them the justice they deserve, and they can help you to do the same.
To find out more about exactly what Joseph D. Lento and his team can do for you, contact the Lento Law Firm today at 888-555-3686, or use our automated online form.
