Your Relevant Document Destruction Laws

HIPAA puts very strict guidelines on the healthcare industry, making healthcare organizations responsible for the secure disposal of patient information. If a covered entity doesn’t apply its destruction policies consistently, or destroys records against its own policy, courts may let a jury assume in a negligence lawsuit that the missing records would have shown the facility treated the patient improperly.

Failing to comply can mean heavy fines and lost business. The Shred Truck provides HIPAA-compliant destruction of medical records, patient files and other health documents.

The GLBA protects consumers’ personal financial information held by financial institutions. That includes banks, securities firms and insurance companies, as well as other businesses that offer financial products and services to consumers. Banks must provide privacy notices and give customers the option to stop their confidential information from being shared with outside third parties.

Under the FTC’s Safeguards Rule, in effect since May 23, 2003, financial institutions must also keep a comprehensive, written information security program, which includes the proper destruction of documents.

FACTA requires businesses to properly dispose of documents that contain consumer information. Consumer reports must be destroyed so thoroughly that they can’t be reconstructed or read again.

Not complying can lead to fines, class action lawsuits, and enforcement actions by federal and state authorities.

Businesses that own or license personal information about Missouri residents must notify affected people without unreasonable delay after a security breach. The Attorney General enforces the law and can seek penalties of up to $150,000 per breach.

Shredding records you no longer need shrinks the amount of information that could ever be exposed.