[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 12, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1422-1423]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00369]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 142 3161]
Henry Schein Practice Solutions, Inc.; Analysis of Proposed
Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both
the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent
order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these
allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before February 4, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/henryscheinconsent online or on paper,
by following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Henry Schein Practice
Solutions, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 142 3161'' on your comment
and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/henryscheinconsent by following the instructions on the Web-based
form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``Henry Schein
Practice Solutions, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 142 3161'' on
your comment and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC
20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: Federal Trade
Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th
Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Lyon (202-326-2344) or Kristin
Madigan (202-326-3560), Bureau of Consumer Protection, 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for January 5, 2016), on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before February 4,
2016. Write ``Henry Schein Practice Solutions, Inc.--Consent Agreement;
File No. 142 3161'' on your comment. Your comment--including your name
and your state--will be placed on the public record of this proceeding,
including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission Web
site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web
site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and
[[Page 1423]]
you have to follow the procedure explained in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR
4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept confidential only if the FTC
General Counsel, in his or her sole discretion, grants your request in
accordance with the law and the public interest.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/henryscheinconsent by following the instructions on the Web-based
form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you
also may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Henry Schein Practice
Solutions, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 142 3161'' on your comment
and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver
your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office
of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor,
Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your
paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that
it receives on or before February 4, 2016. You can find more
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in
the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject
to final approval, an agreement containing a consent order from Henry
Schein Practice Solutions, Inc. (``Henry Schein'').
The proposed consent order has been placed on the public record for
thirty (30) days for receipt of comments by interested persons.
Comments received during this period will become part of the public
record. After thirty (30) days, the Commission will again review the
agreement and the comments received, and will decide whether it should
withdraw from the agreement or make final the agreement's proposed
order.
Henry Schein develops and sells dental practice management
software, including the Dentrix G5 office management software for
dental practices. The Commission's proposed complaint alleges that
Henry Schein violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act by
making false representations to consumers from January 2012 through
January 2014 about the security of its Dentrix G5 software.
Specifically, the Commission's proposed complaint alleges that Henry
Schein falsely represented that Dentrix G5 provides industry-standard
encryption of patient data and helps dentists meet the security
requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(``HIPAA''). The Commission's proposed complaint alleges that, in truth
and in fact, Dentrix G5 used technology that was less secure than
industry-standard encryption, and was not capable of helping dentists
protect patient data as required by HIPAA.
The proposed order contains provisions designed to prevent Henry
Schein from engaging in the same or similar acts or practices in the
future.
Part I of the proposed order prohibits Henry Schein from
misrepresenting: (A) Whether or to what extent any product or service
designed to collect or store personal information offers industry-
standard encryption; (B) the ability of the product or service to help
customers meet regulatory obligations related to privacy or security;
or (C) the extent to which a product or service maintains the privacy,
security, confidentiality, and integrity of personal information.
Part II of the proposed order requires Henry Schein to notify
affected customers that Dentrix G5 uses a less complex encryption
algorithm to protect patient data than Advanced Encryption Standard,
which is recommended as an industry standard by the National Institute
of Standards and Technology. Part II provides for individual notice
letters to affected customers and the creation of a toll-free telephone
number and email address dedicated to responding to inquiries about the
order.
Parts III through V of the proposed order require Henry Schein to
pay $250,000 into a fund to be administered by the Commission. If the
Commission decides that direct redress to affected customers is
impracticable or money remains after redress is completed, the
Commission may apply any remaining money for such other relief
(including consumer information remedies) as it determines is
reasonably related to Henry Schein's practices alleged in the proposed
complaint. Any money not used is to be deposited to the U.S. Treasury.
Parts VI, VII, and IX of the proposed order are reporting and
compliance provisions. Part VI requires that for five (5) years after
the last date of dissemination of any representation covered by the
proposed order, Henry Schein will maintain and upon request make
available certain materials, including: (A) All advertisements and
promotional materials containing the representation; (B) all materials
that were relied upon in disseminating the representation; and (C) all
tests, reports, studies, surveys, demonstrations, or other evidence in
its possession or control that contradict, qualify, or call into
question the representation, or the basis relied upon for the
representation. Part VII is an order distribution provision that
requires Henry Schein to provide the order to current and future
principals, officers, directors, and managers, as well as current and
future employees having managerial responsibilities with respect to the
subject matter of the order. Part IX requires Henry Schein to submit a
compliance report within sixty (60) days after service of the order,
and additional compliance reports within ten (10) days of written
notice from the Commission. Part VIII of the proposed order requires
Henry Schein to notify the Commission at least thirty (30) days prior
to any corporate changes that may affect compliance obligations. Part X
is a provision ``sunsetting'' the order after 20 years, with certain
exceptions.
The purpose of this analysis is to aid public comment on the
proposed order. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the complaint or proposed order, or to modify in any
way the proposed order's terms.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-00369 Filed 1-11-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P