TV Documentary Case: New York hospital reaches $2.2 million settlement with authorities

[WhiteTara]

http://nhv.us/content/16045741-tv-documentary-case-new-york-hospital-reaches-22-million

The Department of Health and Human Services have reached a $2.2 million settlement with New York-Presbyterian Hospital over the matter of filming a television documentary in which health information of two patients was disclosed without their authorization.

The federal authorities said that the hospital allowed the ABC crew for ‘NY Med’ film one patient who was in dying condition and another was in chronic distress. Both the parties have reached a settlement under which the department's Office of Civil Rights will monitor the hospital for two years.

Office Director Jocelyn Samuels said that they take all complaints filed by individuals very seriously and will take all the needed steps to ensure that the patients’ privacy is fully protected.

“This case sends an important message that OCR will not permit covered entities to compromise their patients' privacy by allowing news or television crews to film the patients without their authorization”, mentioned Samuels.

New York-Presbyterian spokeswoman Karen Sodomick said that the hospital’s aim was to educate people about important public health issues and filming does not violate the federal patient privacy rules.