HIPAA Corner: How to dispose of documents containing patient info

Cornell Prescription Pharmacy in Denver will pay $125,000 and adopt a corrective action plan after a reporter found the pharmacy was improperly disposing documents containing patient information. After the story aired, the pharmacy underwent a compliance review and investigation that found the protected health information of 1,610 patients was disposed of in an unlocked, open container on the pharmacy’s premises.

How to Avoid This:

Place all patient and confidential information in locked shred bins for disposal.