MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Five former Methodist Hospital employees have been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of giving out patient information to another man who investigators said would then sell the information to others.
The Department of Justice said in a news release it happened from November 2017 to December 2020.
The DOJ said Kirby Dandridge, Sylvia Taylor, Kara Thompson, Melanie Russell, and Adrianna Taber are accused of providing names and phone numbers of Methodist patients who had been in car accidents to Roderick Harvey. FBI and TBI investigators said Harvey would then take that information and sell it to third parties, including personal injury attorneys and chiropractors.
Harvey and the five hospital employees are charged with conspiring to unlawfully disclose patient information in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, known as HIPAA. The conspiracy charge carries of maximum sentence of five years, three years supervised release, and $250,000 fine if convicted.
Harvey is also charged with seven counts of obtaining patient information with the intent to sell it for financial gain, which has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 for each count if convicted.
Dandridge, Taylor, Thompson, Russell, and Taber were each charged with separate violations of disclosing the information in violation of HIPAA. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment, one year supervised release, and a $50,000 fine.
ABC24 has reached out to Methodist Hospital, which sent the following statement, "At Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, we take the security of our patient’s private information very seriously. Once we became aware of the situation, we promptly took action and alerted the appropriate legal authorities. We’ve cooperated fully with their investigation and ensured each patient who was affected has been notified. While there is no evidence of financial information being disclosed, we are offering free credit reporting for those affected."