Boston Medical Pays for Privacy Violations

Boston Herald -- June 20, 2008

The Boston Medical Center's health insurance plan will pay the state of Massachusetts $562,000 to settle a case about the improper use of patient information.

The hospital used information from health insurance records to reach 2,600 patients to promote the hospital's medical program.

This was a fundamental violation of privacy rules that limit use of personal information only to the purpose for which it was collected. In this case insurance information was for the purpose of paying medical bills.

Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday that the bulk of the settlement total will go to the state’s program to help people buy medical insurance.