The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights has fined three Boston-area hospitals a combined $1 million for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act after they allowed TV crews to film patients without their consent, HealthITSecurity reports. Boston Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital were hit with the fines for compromising patients' personal health information when they allowed the filming of the "Boston Med" TV series to take place on their premises. "Patients in hospitals expect to encounter doctors and nurses when getting treatment, not film crews recording them at their most private and vulnerable moments," OCR Director Roger Severino said. "Hospitals must get authorization from patients before allowing strangers to have access to patients and their medical information."
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