A pair of branches within the Oklahoma state government is working to determine whether the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HealthITSecurity reports. A scheduled internet outage in July prevented VA centers from accessing medical records. In response, officials within the centers allowed employees to access the records on their smartphones. A group of Democratic representatives sent a letter to Gov. Mary Fallin, R-Okla., saying the decision violated HIPAA and called for the firing of two officials, while Oklahoma Chief Information Security Officer Mark Gower said the practice was not a violation of the federal rule. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has levied about $80 million in HIPAA Privacy Rule violation penalties since the law went into effect in April 2003.
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