Tag: Arizona

Walmart and Self-Driving Delivery Cars

Posted on by BeAware4lways

Walmart announced that it will begin experimenting with self-driving cars in a pilot program with General Motors-backed Cruise (a tech start-up with electric, self-driving cars) to deliver groceries and other products to neighborhoods in Phoenix, Arizona. The program will launch in 2021. The fleet of cars will use electricity from renewable resources to curb carbon emissions from the operation.

Customers will be able to place an order from their local store and have the products delivered contact-free by one of Cruise’s self-driving cars. The goal is to save customers time and money while also experimenting with technology that will help the environment.

While the pandemic has halted lots of autonomous vehicle companies’ plans to launch all sorts of services across many different cities in the U.S., the need for contact-free delivery, including prescription deliveries, has led many companies like Cruise to use the technology to fill that need.

Dignity Health Settles with OCR for $160,000 for Failing to Provide Access to Records

Posted on by BeAware4lways

Continuing with its previous enforcement actions centered on covered entities’ failure to provide patients with access to their health records, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on October 9, 2020 that it entered into a settlement with Dignity Health, doing business as St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix (St. Joseph’s) for $160,000 for failing to respond to multiple requests of a mother for her son’s records.

According to the OCR, a patient’s mother requested on multiple occasions her son’s medical records and St. Joseph’s failed to respond to her requests. She complained to the OCR, which commenced an investigation. Although St. Joseph’s provided partial records within months of the mother’s initial request in January 2018, the request was not fully complied with until December 2019.

The OCR stated “It shouldn’t take a federal investigation to secure access to patient medical records, but too often that’s what it takes when health care providers don’t take their HIPAA obligations seriously.” The OCR warned covered entities by further stating “OCR has many right of access investigations open across the country, and will continue to vigorously enforce this right to better empower patients.”

In addition to the settlement of $160,000, St. Joseph’s is subject to a two-year corrective action plan that requires it to retrain its employees, update its policies and procedures around access to records, and distribute them to employees.