Quest Diagnostics pays $5M after mixing patient medical data with hazardous waste

Quest Diagnostics has agreed to pay almost $5 million to settle allegations it illegally dumped protected health information – and hazardous waste – at its facilities across California. This sum won't hurt at all for the corporation, one of the largest clinical medical lab networks in the US. In all, Quest is being charged …

[aerogems]

Said it before, will say it again. You want fines to actually be a deterrent, make them proportional. Say 5% of gross revenues for the previous FY. It has the added bonus of being much more equitable since it hurts every company exactly the same amount. Large companies can't just simply write it off as a cost of doing business and smaller companies won't necessarily be put out of business by a large fine, giving them a chance to reform. If CEOs start having to explain to investors why 5% of their gross revenues disappeared, there might be a lot more shakeups in C-Suites. The fear of losing their cushy do-nothing high-paying job will mean that executives will actually make sure that changes are implemented.

I'm also all in favor of making anyone who has a title in the CxO family, personally liable for any criminal actions undertaken by the company. So, if Quest were to be found guilty of HIPAA violations, which call for prison time, it would be served by one or more of the C-Suite residents. That, or the company would be effectively put in prison, meaning it would be unable to do business for the duration of its sentence, or would only be able to earn roughly a few cents per hour like any other prisoner, all the rest of the money going to the state and/or federal government.

[Richard 12]

Stop 'Ing Settling

Settling needs to be flat illegal if the fine awarded by a court is likely to be greater than some minimal level.

It should only be possible to settle tiny infractions out of court. Otherwise breaking the law repeatedly is just a cost of doing business, with no consequences whatsoever.

[VicMortimer]

Re: Stop 'Ing Settling

And the "In exchange, it admits no guilt over the matter" nonsense needs to stop.

At the VERY least, companies should have to admit guilt and the CEO be forced to publicly apologize.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Stop 'Ing Settling

"At the VERY least, companies should have to admit guilt and the CEO be forced to publicly apologize."

The CEO needs to be personally fined. A public apology is something they can have a secretary type up or have fill-in-the-blanks form letters for same. Far too easy. Having to write a check would focus their mind on the issue a bit more.

[SnailFerrous]

Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously

Well clearly not....

[David Austin]

Re: Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously

"We take [x] very seriously" should become legally binding - I'm fed up of spokesfaces rolling that line out when it's patently untrue, and would love to see them squirm trying to prove how seriously they take it to a court and jury.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously

The media could stamp on it by simply refusing to publish such statements without further questions being answered - such as "Well you didn't that time, did you?". Or "But you said that last time and the time before, didn't you?" to serial offenders.

[David 132]

Re: Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously

Actually the bit of spokeweasel effluvium that got me in the fine article was this:

“Through our meticulous waste audits, it came to light that Quest Diagnostics may have encountered challenges in properly managing confidential patient data, medical waste, and hazardous materials…”

“May have encountered challenges”.

Note the passive voice. It wasn’t our fault, it was those mysterious “challenges”. We tried to do the right thing, but who could have foreseen “challenges”?

“Sorry I was caught climbing out of a house window at 2am with a large bag marked SWAG, m’lud, but I encountered challenges in properly not burgling…”

[martinusher]

Re: Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously

Quest is a huge corporation with offices, collection boxes and labs all over the US. I'd be very surprised if some office, somewhere wasn't in compliance from time to time. That's why you have checks and balances, enforcement and so on, it keeps people honest.

I'm not a great fan of mega-corproations, especially in fields like health-care, but this idea that "They're a big corporation, we can take them for everything we want" seems to be endemic. Its usually companies like Tesla ("anything Musk") or Amazon that's bearing the brunt of this but its not only ineffectual, its missing the point entirely. Criticism seems to be driven primarily jealousy rather than a considered view about whether the way we allow corporations to dictate social policy is a good idea.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously

"I'd be very surprised if some office, somewhere wasn't in compliance from time to time. "

There's a difference between the odd piece of paper or a container winding up in the wrong place and large scale issues. The punishment needs to fit the infraction. A small fine for a page of PII, but also those people notified and indemnified against issues from that information not being kept secure.

When I was in aerospace, one of my duties was as the safety officer. It was my job to write the safety procedures and supervise handling of dangerous products and test activities. A company such as Quest should have somebody in each office/facility that acts as the compliance officer either as part of other duties or full time to fit the needs. Once the workflow in in place and policies put into effect that everybody is taught, it's not hard. Paper shredders are ubiquitous from small desk side units to giant eaters of treeware. A policy that every piece of paper gets shredded from junk mail to medical reports is easy enough. Everything in a medical lab should be considered medical waste for purposes of handling and disposal. To keep from running up a fancy bill is to make sure than almost nothing in the lab that would not be classified as medical waste is brought in could save money on disposal fees. That leaves the waste compliance person with little to do beyond making sure the rules are adhered to.

[Anonymous Coward]

Found pharmacy giving out PHI also

I realized yesterday that my pharmacy put several of our prescriptions onto a "pharmacy discount card" without us asking. That's a 3rd-party company I have no business with but now has some rather sensitive medical information on us. The really stupid thing is, when they reprocessed the prescriptions to send them to the insurance we've had on file with them for several years, it was cheaper.

HIPAA complaint submitted.

Heads up - always verify what "insurance" was billed for the prescriptions. Sometimes you'll be surprised.

[bemusedHorseman]

This is why Captain Planet left us

Humanity has been deemed "not worth saving" at this point.