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Breach Penalties: has Armageddon arrived?

Has the government gone too far?   The newly enacted laws related to violations of privacy and security has reached unprecedented levels.  With penalties as high as $1.5 million dollars and 10 years in prison, one must take serious pause before installing an electronic medical record system.  The penalties for even inadvertent mistakes start at $250,000 for each incident!  On top of that the provider is required to be their own whistleblower to the public and patients.  I can imagine a lot of finger pointing between the vendor and the provider if something bad goes down.  It will be a lawyer hay day.

I don’t know many doctors that can absorb that kind of hit. On the one hand the current and previous administration has promoted the digitization of the medical records, but then they want to scare the crap out of us if there are any unforeseen glitches. Don’t get me wrong, security breaches are serious. But crucifying doctors and stoning them in public seems excessive.  I’m not saying there shouldn’t be penalties or consequences to poor design or a lack of precautions. I think that the size of the penalties is unreasonable and counterproductive. If we are to move forward in a new era of digital records, there needs to be some reassurance that we can still practice medicine without an overriding fear of catastrophic financial loss and criminal prosecution. All it would take is an employee who is either careless or disgruntled to allow a small or large breach and it would be game over! This gives employees a whole new retaliation tool. One can bet full well that if a breach occurs, the feds will be going after the doc and not the receptionist. This interjects a precarious dynamic within an office hierarchy.  Even if there are perfect internal rules in place to protect the privacy and security of the medical records, an employee could bypass them, causing irreparable damage to the physician. The new rule even penalizes for inadvertent breaches.  I would like to see some consideration given to circumstances and due process. There needs to be some fudge room. I would like to see the American Medical Association and other medical associations stand up to this absurd standard and repeal this one sided law in favor of more balance and equity.  I hope to see a ground swell of support to counter this government heavy handedness. Comments are welcome!