A healthcare employee who was charged with violation of patient privacy and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules was cleared of any violation after the federal law enforcement’s investigation. The said employee was alleged to have sent pictures of patients to unauthorized persons. But the investigation revealed that an old associate concocted a plan to frame the employee for fake HIPAA violations and he is now confronted with a prison sentence for his false reports.
Jeffrey Parker, 43 years old, living in Richmond Hill, GA, devised a detailed plan to frame the old associate for patient privacy violations. Parker pleaded guilty in a U. S. District Court in the Southern District of Georgia to one count of false statements and confessed making phony email addresses and creating information to try to ruin a past associate. Parker pictured himself as a whistleblower and called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the hospital that employs the healthcare worker to make false accusations of HIPAA violations.
Parker created several email addresses using the actual names of people. He impersonated each one to incriminate the healthcare employee of patient privacy and the HIPAA Rules violations. Parker additionally stated that he was threatened for bringing out he HIPAA violations and appearing as a whistleblower. The FBI looked into the case immediately to protect Parker but discovered inconsistencies in his report of incidents. After more investigation, Parker confessed that he had made up everything to ruin the former associate.
U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine for the Southern District of Georgia said that the fake complaint did not just result in potential harm to an innocent person, it also unnecessarily redirected funds from federal detectives whose conscientious work believed his pack of lies.
Lots of hours of investigative assets were squandered figuring out Parkers’ whistleblower statements were a plan to ruin a past acquaintance. Now he is going to pay for his strategic criminal offense. These kinds of things will be uncovered and penalized.
Parker will be sentenced to a maximum of 5 years in prison.