OCR: Walgreens HIPAA Investigation Continues

Walgreens operates the most number of drugstores in the country ahead of No. 2 CVS and No. 3 Rite Aid.

HHS's consent agreements with CVS and Rite Aid revealed that the pharmacies disposed pill bottles and prescriptions that included protected health information in trash containers without proper safeguards.

WTHR, the Indianapolis television outlet that broke the improper disposal practices after a nationwide "dumpster-diving" investigation, reported that Walgreens was one of the pharmacies where it found PHI in Dumpsters with easy access by the public.

In addition to paying HHS $1 million, Rite Aid signed a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to settle potential violations of the FTC Act and agreed to report compliance efforts to the FTC for 20 years.

CVS, meanwhile, agreed to implement a robust corrective action plan that requires:

• Privacy rule compliant policies and procedures for safeguarding disposed patient information
• Employee training on HIPAA
• Employee sanctions for noncompliance 

In addition, CVS must monitor its compliance with the HHS and FTC orders by having a third party conduct assessments and report to the federal agencies. The HHS corrective action plan lasts three years; the FTC requires monitoring for 20 years.

Rite Aid's corrective action plan is similar.

The money collected by OCR through these settlements goes to "enforcement activities under the HITECH Act and the HIPAA Privacy and Security regulations," OCR wrote in an e-mail to HealthLeaders Media.