Working from home doesn’t work for most, well, nearly all, physicians, but taking work home does, or even taking a work call in a car.
The issue is, who’s within earshot?
From BP and a Couple of Texans to Potential Trouble For You
On February 22, 2024, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission announced civil charges against Tyler Loudon of Houston, Texas, the husband of a BP p.l.c. mergers and acquisitions manager. The same day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced that Louden pleaded guilty to securities fraud.
As background, during the relevant time in 2023, both Loudon and his wife were working from home. His wife was an executive in mergers and acquisitions at BP p.l.c. (often commonly referred to under its former name, The British Petroleum Company).
The criminal and civil cases center around the allegations that Loudon overheard several of his wife’s work-related conversations in the course of which she discussed BP’s then pending acquisition of TravelCenters of America Inc., a large chain of truck stop and travel centers.
According to the allegations, Loudon then, without his wife’s knowledge, purchased 46,450 shares of TravelCenters stock before the acquisition deal was publicly announced. Upon the subsequent announcement of the deal, the value of TravelCenters stock shot up 71% and, as alleged, he immediately sold all of his shares for a profit of $1.76 million.
As a part of his criminal case plea agreement, Loudon agreed to forfeit the $1.7 million in illegal proceeds. Additionally, he faces up to five years in federal prison as well as up to $250,000 in fines.
From Insider Trading to Inside Voices
As interesting as the Loudon case is, insider trading isn’t the point of this post. Rather, it’s the fact that an almost identical situation applies to HIPAA violations in the context of disclosures of PHI made by physicians, both orally and in the form of unsecured records, while working from home or even while taking a phone call in the car with, as in the Loudon case, a family member present.
What policies does your group have? How are they enforced . . . or even, how can they be enforced? What does difficulty in enforcing them mean? (Answer: nothing.)
As the WWII era poster says, loose lips sink ships.
