Triple-S Salud has been fined nearly $6.8 million for violations of the federal Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA), reports Caribbean Business.
The penalty handed down by the Puerto Rico government’s Medical Insurance Administration against the unit of San Juan-based Triple-S Management Corp. stem from a probe into a privacy breach last year. ASES Director Ricardo Rivera said Triple-S Salud was fined $6.7 million improperly handled private health records of more than 13,330 patients in written correspondence to them. Another $100,000 fined was tacked on after the company provided vague or incomplete information during the probe, he said. The sanctions also bar Triple-S Salud from signing up more beneficiaries for its Platino line until it presents a corrective plan to avoid such HIPAA violations.
A notice on ASES’s web site (in Spanish) explains that on September 20, 2013, Triple-S Salud sent a mailing that exposed Medicare Health Insurance Claim Numbers in the mailing addresses. They became aware of their error on September 23, 2013.
