WY hospital faces HIPAA shakeup

A Wyoming hospital has kicked off a crackdown on HIPAA compliance, firing and reprimanding several employees after they admitted improperly accessing medical records.  Employees at the hospital, Ivinson Memorial Hospital of Laramie, WY, had primarily been accessing their own records, but the hospital has told them that they may not do even that without permission.

To date, Ivinson has fired one of the affected employees, suspended two others and reprimanded an additional four. The employees who received reprimands had looked at others' medical records in addition to their own. The hospital has decided not to fire employees who looked only at their own records.

To find out more about Ivinson's actions:
- read this Associated Press article

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