Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Legal Expert
A health-care worker who used a cancer patient’s identity to run up credit-card bills and purchase expensive jewelry is expected to face prison time when he is released from federal custody. In November, a jury convicted Seattle Cancer Care Alliance employee Richard Gibson of violating a medical-privacy law known as HIPAA.
He was sentenced to 16 months in jail. Gibson stole the identity of a cancer patient to use his credit cards at restaurants, buy electronics and make online purchases. He also violated a federal rule that prevents healthcare workers from discussing the political views of patients or their families.
The cancer center has agreed to pay $250,000 and enact prescription-drug safeguards in a case involving a former nurse who stole 96,000 oxycodone pills between 2011 and 2013. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the nurse’s scheme unraveled in 2013 after a patient filed a claim with Washington state’s Labor & Industries agency for a job injury. L&I consulted the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program and found SCCA had issued the nurse a valid painkiller prescription.
After that, the nurse began to fill oxycodone prescriptions from other doctors, and her coworkers sent her unsolicited emails criticizing President Trump and accusing her of supporting his policies. Weitzman told The Daily Signal that when she complained about the emails, her boss, Tiffany Courtnage, directed her to bring the issue up directly with Berry.
Weitzman says the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Legal Expert and its supervisors violated federal, Washington state and city laws by harassing her because of her political beliefs. She’s seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages in her lawsuit.
Sullivan, whose husband died of leukemia, serves on the boards of The Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington Medical Center. She is also a trustee of the Seattle Foundation and a board member of the Seattle Metropolitan Opera.
SCCA is a non-profit organization that unites Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s into one extraordinary group that’s focused on the pursuit of better, longer, richer lives for its patients. The group is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in six states.
Founded in 1977, SCCA is led by a nine-member board of directors who are elected annually by the alliance’s members. The board includes Boh Dickey, chairman of Safeco; James Dwyer, president of Sound Floor Coverings; Anne Farrell, president and chief executive officer of The Seattle Foundation; Jon Fine, CEO of United Way of King County; Richard Guy, a former chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court; Linda Mattox, community volunteer; Shan Mullin, partner in the Perkins Coie law firm; Marsha Pechman, a judge in the U.S. District Court; and William Ruckelshaus, a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency. For more information, visit www.seattlecancercarealliance.org. The Lyon Firm has extensive experience in medical-privacy and data-breach cases. Contact us for a free consultation about your case. We’re here for you and your family.