Ryan Lee O’Neill, a partner in the Firms White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations Group, recently authored an article for Law360 titled, “Defense Lessons From Recent Criminal HIPAA Cases.” Ryan discusses why federal healthcare prosecutors charge criminal violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). She explains the “HIPAA kicker,” as she calls it, which “places defendants in a fairly new and perhaps more difficult bargaining position, and prosecutors know it. It’s their safety net – either they have it or they don’t and they usually do on the occasions they charge it.” Ryan provides a summary of recent HIPAA prosecutions from the past three years and shares her thoughts on each. She also explains the importance of providing clients with the full prospect of HIPAA violations and what they can entail, and how they may not be the worst option. “So, depending on the government’s proof and where your client falls in the scheme, a criminal HIPAA charge may be the least of all evils – even less so than our usual friend, wire fraud.”
See “Law360 - Defense Lessons From Recent Criminal HIPAA Cases 2022” for the complete article.
