Attorney General James Secures $300,000 from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for Failing to Protect Patient Data

 

Advertising Tools on Hospital’s Website Tracked Visitors Searching for Doctors or Booking Appointments, in Violation of Federal Law

New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $300,000 from The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) for disclosing the health information of individuals who visited their website. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that the hospital used advertising tools on its website that collected and shared private and personal information with third-party tech companies when visitors used the website to search for doctors or book appointments, in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).  As a result of today’s settlement, NYP has agreed to change its policies, secure the deletion of protected health information, and maintain enhanced privacy safeguards and controls.

“New Yorkers searching for a doctor or medical help should be able to do so without their private information being compromised,” said Attorney General James. “Hospitals and medical facilities must uphold a high standard for protecting their patients' personal information and health data. NewYork-Presbyterian failed to handle its patients’ health information with care, and as a result, tech companies gained access to people’s data. Today’s agreement will ensure that NewYork-Presbyterian is not negligent in protecting its patients’ information.”

The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital operates 10 hospitals across New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area and receives more than 2 million patient visits each year. The NYP’s website allows visitors to book appointments, search for doctors, learn about NYP services, and research information relating to symptoms and conditions. An OAG investigation found that NYP did not have appropriate internal policies or procedures for vetting third-party tracking tools and did not review or vet third-party tracking tools for violations of policy or law prior to their deployment.

Between June 2016 and June 2022, NYP used third-party tools to track visitors to its website for marketing purposes. These tools used snippets of code, known as tracking pixels or tags, that sent information back to the third party whenever a webpage loaded or a user took a pre-defined action, like clicking a link, submitting a form, or running a search using the website’s search function.

Third-party companies received a variety of information about NYP’s website visitors. In some cases, those companies received information about the user’s health. Most third-party companies received the user’s IP address and the URL of the webpage that had loaded or the link that was clicked. If a user searched for a doctor by specialist or condition, researched a health condition, or scheduled an appointment, information about the user’s doctor or health condition were in some cases reflected in the URL. For example, if a user conducted a search using the words “spine surgery,” the URL of the search result page would include “spine-surgery” and the third party would receive that health information about the user.

Several third parties received unique identifiers that had been stored on users’ devices, allowing third parties to recognize users they had previously interacted with. One of the third parties also may have received first and last name, email address, mailing address, and gender information.

In June 2022, a journalist reported on the use of tracking tools on NYP websites and their collection of sensitive health data. The NYP disabled tracking tools on its website soon after and contracted a third-party forensic firm to determine the extent of the data released. In March 2023, NYP formally reported the incident affected over 54,000 people.

As a result of today’s agreement, NYP has agreed to pay $300,000 and to adopt policies and procedures to prevent the disclosure of protected health information through tracking tools, including:

• Maintaining appropriate policies and procedures on the use of third-party tools;
• Conducting regular audits, reviews, and tests of third-party tools before deploying them to a NYP website or app;
• Conducting regular reviews of the contracts, privacy policies, and terms of use associated with third-party tools; and
• Instructing third parties to delete any protected health information they received.

Healthcare providers can find guidance on HIPAA’s application to the use of tracking technologies in the document Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates, issued by the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. 

This agreement continues Attorney General James’ efforts to protect New Yorkers’ personal information and hold companies accountable for their poor data security practices. In November, Attorney General James secured $450,000 from US Radiology for a data breach that leaked the personal data of more than 92,000 New Yorkers. In October, Attorney General James secured $350,000 from Long Island health care company Personal Touch for failing to secure the data of 300,000 New Yorkers. Earlier that month, Attorney General James and a multistate coalition secured $49.5 million from cloud company Blackbaud for a 2020 data breach exposing the data of thousands of users. In September, Attorney General James reached an agreement with Marymount Manhattan College to invest $3.5 million to protect students’ online data. Also in May, Attorney General James recouped $550,000 from a medical management company for failing to protect patient data. In April, Attorney General James released a comprehensive data security guide to help companies strengthen their data security practices. In October 2022, Attorney General James announced a $1.9 million agreement with the owner of SHEIN and Zoetop for failing to properly handle a data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of consumers.

DEC RELEASES FINAL NEW YORK STATE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN

 

Plan Guides Next Decade of State and Local Actions to Prioritize a Circular Economy to Promote Reuse, Prevent Landfilling, and Reduce Emissions that Cause Climate Change

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced the finalization of the 2023-2032 New York State Solid Waste Management Plan, a milestone in the State’s ongoing efforts to ensure New York is at the forefront of rethinking waste. The New York State Solid Waste Management Plan: Building the Circular Economy through Sustainable Materials Management is a 10-year plan that describes actions to reduce the climate impact of solid waste and provides direction for New York's waste reduction, reuse, recycling, collection, transportation, and disposal investments, policies, and practices over the next decade. The prior plan, Beyond Waste: A Sustainable Materials Management Strategy, was released in 2010.  

“The State’s new Solid Waste Management Plan is a roadmap for advancing more sustainable solid waste management to reduce landfilled waste and address one of New York’s largest contributors to climate-altering greenhouse gases,” Commissioner Seggos said. “Working closely with DEC’s State, local, and community partners, New York State is bolstering existing efforts to divert waste from landfills, return materials back to productive use, and reduce climate emissions.”

 

Diverting waste from landfills and renewing a resilient and recycled supply chain is integral to achieving goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act that include reducing greenhouse gas emissions while promoting a just and equitable transition to a greener economy. The Solid Waste Management Plan sets forth six major focus areas to move the circular economy and materials management industry forward in New York State:

• Waste Reduction and Reuse;
• Recycling and Recycling Market Development and Resiliency;
• Product Stewardship and Extended Producer Responsibility;
• Organics Reduction and Recycling;
• Toxics Reduction in Products; and
• Advanced Design and Operation of Solid Waste Management Facilities and Related Activities.

DEC is already taking action to support items identified in the Plan, including:

• Awarding nearly $2.9 million in grant funding to 23 municipalities statewide to help establish or expand food scrap recycling programs and facilities. Nearly $1.9 million of this funding was prioritized to 13 projects serving communities in Potential Environmental Justice Areas and helps support the continued equitable development of the organics recycling industry across the state.
• DEC awarded nearly $2.2 million in grant funding to 47 emergency food relief organizations to assist with the purchase of equipment (such as trucks, refrigerated vehicles, freezers, and refrigerators) which will assist these organizations in providing food to the more than two million people in New York State facing hunger. This financial assistance addresses the capacity and transportation needs of emergency food relief organizations across the State and supports the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling law. DEC recently celebrated a milestone in the law’s implementation by reaching five million pounds of food donated to New Yorkers in need through DEC’s initiative with Feeding New York State.
• DEC received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grant Program to assist New York in implementing online reporting for solid waste management and recycling facilities regulated by DEC, helping facilitate timely data reporting, data evaluation, compliance evaluations, and enforcement.
• DEC is engaging with reuse partners across the state and will continue to work more closely with partners to identify needs to expand infrastructure and building material reuse, promote deconstruction and reuse through outreach and education, and develop priorities and strategies to ensure materials from the built environment are reused for their highest and best use.

The action items and the State’s investments are designed to move New York State to an 85 percent total waste stream recycling rate by 2050. Several initiatives to advance waste reduction were also included in the State’s Climate Action Council final Scoping Plan and would require legislative changes, such as expanding the State’s food donation and food scraps recycling law, reducing packaging and paper product waste, and proposing disposal disincentives on all waste landfilled or combusted in New York.

DEC recognizes the importance of partnerships in achieving the solid waste management objectives for 2032 and beyond. As part of the public process in developing the plan, DEC released a draft for public review in March 2023 along with an informational webinar and an extended public comment period. The final plan released today includes revisions and clarifications based on the DEC’s review of approximately 1,400 comments submitted by individuals, organizations, municipalities, associations, elected officials, businesses, among other stakeholders. To review DEC’s assessment of public comments received on the draft plan, visit DEC’s website: New York State Solid Waste Management Plan – NYSDEC.

CON MEN, CORPORATION PLEAD GUILTY IN DEED FRAUD SCHEME TO STEAL HOUSES IN QUEENS, NASSAU

 

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Russell Carbone and Terrell Hill pleaded guilty to a wide-ranging scheme to steal residential properties by filing forged deeds with city officials. As part of the plea, the court voided deeds to seven homes in Queens and two in Nassau County so they could be returned to their rightful owners.

Carbone and Hill worked together to target homes where the owners died and their heirs had not taken title to them. To help find the properties, Hill, a landscaper, would alert Carbone, a disbarred attorney, to homes that appeared abandoned. Most turned out to have gone into foreclosure.

District Attorney Katz said: “When I started the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau three years ago, I promised to protect homeowners from predatory real estate scams that often target vulnerable neighborhoods. Since then, we have undone the criminal handiwork of scammers and con artists and pioneered the use of a state statute to return stolen properties to their rightful owners. With the conclusion of this prosecution, the largest we have undertaken so far, our office will have restored a total of 14 homes to their rightful owners.”

Carbone, 69, of Beach Ninth Street in Far Rockaway, and Hill, 40, of Woodfield Road, West Hempstead, pleaded guilty before Queens Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng to scheme to defraud in the first degree and six counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. RC Couture Realty Inc., a corporation run by Carbone and his wife, Galyna Couture, 61, pleaded guilty to criminal possession of stolen property in the first degree and six counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.

In addition to forfeiting the ill-gotten deeds, Carbone will pay $56,960 in restitution. The money represents rent payments he collected after illegally taking over properties and leasing them out. The money will go to the heirs of the legitimate property owners. Carbone’s license as a notary was also revoked.

R.C. Couture Realty must pay a $100,000 fine.

Hill is also expected to face up to three years in prison when he is sentenced on January 30, 2024.

The Queens homes stolen were located on 116th Road, 115th Avenue, 148th Street and 192nd Street in Jamaica; on 131st Avenue in Laurelton Gardens; and on 104th Avenue and 192nd Street in St. Albans.

In Nassau County, the homes were on Pinebrook Avenue in West Hempstead and Advent Street in Westbury.

In some instances, the deeds were transferred more than once among the defendants and entities connected to them, resulting in 14 deeds for nine homes.

In two additional cases that were part of the charged scheme to defraud, Carbone and Hill had already agreed to relinquish deeds to the legitimate owners.

And in another case, the duo had already sold a home on 148th Street in Jamaica to a third party. The District Attorney’s office will file a motion to apply a state statute and restore that deed to its rightful owner, sparing the victim the time and expense of additional legal proceedings in civil court.

According to the charges and plea agreements:

• Between November 8, 2019, and February 14, 2023, Hill and Carbone forged signatures on property records to transfer to themselves the ownership of multiple properties.
• The signatures were notarized with fraudulent notary stamps that Hill ordered from Amazon in the names of actual notaries. Carbone also used his own, legitimate notary stamp on some documents.
• The fraudulent documents were filed with the New York City Department of Finance.

In the case of the home on 116th Road in Jamaica, Hill called a Bronx woman in November 2019 about possibly selling the house, which she had inherited with her brother. Following the phone conversation, Hill introduced the victim to his “business partner,” Carbone, who met the woman at a local coffee shop to discuss the sale. The woman declined the purchase offer.

A deed transferring title to the property was filed nonetheless on March 12, 2021, indicating that RC Couture Realty, Inc. and Terrell Hill each owned a 48% interest in the property and the victim and her sibling each owned a 1% share.

Hill and Carbone forged the siblings’ signatures on the deed transfer documents, which were stamped with a fraudulent notary stamp and Carbone’s legitimate stamp.

The actual notary told investigators that the stamp was not hers. Hill’s Amazon records showed he ordered a notary stamp with this notary’s information and had it shipped to his home in West Hempstead.

In another case, a 2021 deed transfer for a home on Sutter Avenue in Jamaica included the purported signature of an heir to the property’s original owner. The document said the home was transferred to Carbone and Hill with the heir retaining 1% ownership.

The heir said he did not sign the document. The notary whose stamp is on the paperwork also said he did not sign, nor stamp, the document. Hill’s Amazon records showed another purchase shipped to his home in West Hempstead for a notary stamp with this notary’s information as well.

A nephew of the property’s original owner was living in the home and Carbone wrote to him, portraying himself as the new owner trying to “make a deal” to get him to leave. Carbone then started eviction proceedings against him.

Facing a civil lawsuit, Hill and Carbone agreed to void the deed, returning the home to the rightful owner.

Governor Hochul Reminds New Yorkers of Upcoming Minimum Wage Increase

 

Beginning January 1, New York’s Minimum Wage Will Increase to $16-Per-Hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County and $15-Per Hour in the Rest of the State

Part of Historic, Multi-Year Plan to Increase New York’s Minimum Wage Through 2027 Then Index it to Inflation

Minimum Wage for Home Care Aides Will Also Increase to $18.55-Per-Hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County and $17.55-Per-Hour in the Rest of the State

Minimum Wage Workers Who Do Not See Increase Reflected in Their Paychecks Are Encouraged to File a Wage Complaint With the New York State Department of Labor Here 

Governor Kathy Hochul today reminded New Yorkers that the state’s minimum wage will increase on January 1, 2024 as part of a historic, multi-year plan to increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation. Per an agreement between Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature, New York’s minimum wage will increase to $16-per-hour hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, and $15-per-hour in the rest of the state. Additionally, the minimum wage for home care aides will increase to $18.55 an hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island and $17.55 an hour in counties in upstate New York. Raising New York's minimum wage to keep pace with inflation will benefit hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers across the state.

“New York’s historic minimum wage increase will help to ensure that New Yorkers can continue to keep pace with rising costs,” Governor Hochul said. “Starting January 1, minimum wage workers who do not see the increase reflected in their paychecks are urged to file a complaint with the Department of Labor to make sure that they get the wages they are owed.”

New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said, "The elevation of the minimum wage serves as lifeline for New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet as costs rise. Steady, multi-year changes allow businesses time to adjust while providing low-wage workers the ability to better support themselves and their families."

As part of the FY 2024 Budget, Governor Hochul secured an historic agreement to increase New York’s minimum wage through 2026 and index it to inflation beginning in 2027. After the initial increase, the minimum wage will increase by $0.50 in 2025 and 2026. In 2027, the minimum wage will increase annually at a rate determined by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region – the best regional measure of inflation. An "off-ramp" is available in the event of certain economic or budget conditions.

The minimum wage increases for the next three years are shown below:

Effective Date	New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County	Remainder of New York State
Current Minimum Wage	$15/hour	$14.20/hour
January 1, 2024	$16/hour	$15/hour
January 1, 2025	$16.50/hour	$15.50/hour
January 1, 2026	$17/hour	$16/hour

Indexing the minimum wage to inflation will help to maintain the purchasing power of workers' wages from year to year. Increasing the minimum wage overall overwhelmingly benefits low-income workers, particularly women and people of color who comprise a disproportionate share of minimum wage workers.

Eighteen other states either currently tie their minimum wage to inflation or some other economic formula or are slated to do so, including three states which have minimum wages at or above $15 in 2023. Economic research shows that raising the minimum wage can lead to reductions in poverty, reduced social assistance spending, stimulative spending, improved worker productivity, and other benefits.

The New York State Department of Labor is conducting a public awareness effort to remind New Yorkers about the minimum wage increase and encourage minimum wage workers to report missing wages. That effort will include digital outreach via social media, newsletters, and e-mail communications and direct outreach to distribute informational flyers with partnering organizations.

Minimum wage earners who do not see the increase reflected in their paychecks can file a wage complaint on the New York State Department of Labor’s website or by calling 833-910-4378. For more information about NYSDOL’s efforts to combat wage theft, visit the Department’s landing page.