Category: Alerts
While it might not necessarily be part of a new trend or
initiative by the OCR, there was a press release dated
October 2, 2019 that signaled OCR’s position on how Covered Entities should
react to social media reviews. The details of this case are not entirely clear,
but it appears that the patient at issue posted a negative review of Elite
Dental Associates, Dallas (“Elite”) on Elite’s Yelp page and Elite responded to
the review with the patient’s PHI. Subsequent to a complaint by the patient,
the OCR found that Elite had also revealed the PHI of several other patients on
Yelp. Although Elite was only subjected to a low penalty of $10,000 and a
corrective action plan, this incident should serve as a warning to other
stakeholders that Covered Entities may not reveal any PHI on social media
without the proper authorizations. Notably, it appears that there is no leniency
to the Covered Entity in situations where the patient takes the first step by
posting a review on a social media site. A Covered Entity remains prohibited
from responding in any way that improperly discloses PHI, regardless of any
prior disclosures by the patient on social media.
