Wellpoint HIPAA Patient Privacy Breach Settlement Agreement

July 11, 2013
WellPoint Inc. agreed to pay to pay a $1.7 million penalty to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Protection Security Rule. WellPoint was first alerted to the breach in March 2010, when a WellPoint applicant in California filed a lawsuit claiming that she was able to access the personal health data of other customers. The HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) alleged that security weaknesses in an online application database left the electronic protected . . .