Pharmacist Steve: Clarification on HIPAA lawsuit against Walgreens

http://pathologyblawg.com/medical-news/clarification-on-hipaa-lawsuit-against-walgreens/

From the article:
Since HIPAA does not have a private right of action, common folks like you and I cannot use HIPAA directly in a privacy lawsuit, only the government can sue with HIPAA (civilly and criminally I might mention).  What private citizens have been doing, though, is proving to the court that if a HIPAA violation occurred, then this violation serves as a breach of duty by the health care professional in negligence cases, fiduciary duty cases, and straight forward violation of privacy cases.
Second, in a 2006 state court case (attached), the North Carolina Court of Appeals allowed HIPAA to be used to demonstrate the standard of care element in a psychiatric privacy case where the plaintiff sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress.  If one can use HIPAA as the standard of care and show HIPAA was violated, then the next logical step is that the health care professional breached a duty owed to the plaintiff by violating the standard of care.  After that, all that remains is proving damages.
As healthcare providers consolidate.. and pharmacy is no exception.. I would suspect that >50% of the “doors” are under the logo of maybe a dozen different names… the “pockets” tend to get “deeper”.. and attorneys love “deep pockets”.. We all know that HIPAA violations are part of the daily grind in the the Rx dept..
It is common knowledge that the surplus of attorneys makes the surplus of Pharmacists a non issue.. and how many of these HIPAA violations will just be settled.. however.. if you are a Pharmacist or a tech in a state that requires licensing.. and you are involved in “violating a standard of care”… could you also be brought before the BOP for unprofessional conduct ?

quoted from Pharmacist Steve blog post found here