Man convicted of breaking patient confidentiality
A funeral director in St. Petersburg, FL, has been convicted in what is being called the largest leak ever of confidential information concerning people’s HIV status.Gregory Wentz was found guilty by Pinellas County Judge William Overton on April 29. No sentencing date has been set. He faces up to 60 days in jail.
The judge concluded that Wentz stole a list of 3,945 HIV-positive patients from the laptop computer of his live-in companion, a state health worker who collected information on HIV patients as part of a national surveillance program. Prosecutors contend that Wentz stole the list and then mailed it to two newspapers because he had a grudge against his companion and hoped to get him in trouble.
The two newspapers both refused to print the list, but HIV-positive Floridians still feared that they might suffer because the confidentiality of their case files had been compromised. Attorney Bruce Howie tells Healthcare Risk Management that his client plans to appeal the judge’s ruling.
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