ORDER

MARILYN D. GO, Magistrate Judge.

The parties have jointly moved for a protective order of confidentiality to protect certain information that may be produced in discovery and submitted a proposed stipulated protective order (the "Proposed Protective Order.") See DE 21. This Court finds, given the nature of the claims asserted herein, that certain documents produced in discovery may contain confidential private information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than litigating this action would be warranted. Accordingly, this Court orders as follows:

I. The Proposed Protective Order, to which the parties have stipulated and which is annexed hereto as Exhibit 1, is approved and incorporated herein, except as modified below.

II. The parties may designate documents and information as "Confidential Materials" under paragraph 4 only if the document is entitled to confidential treatment under applicable legal principles, such as personnel and disciplinary records; private personal, medical, mental health, or financial information; information required by law to be maintained in confidence by any person; and information protected from disclosure by government regulations may be so designated. Thus, records or information which are publicly available or do not fall within the preceding categories described may not be designated as confidential. In addition, this Order protects all copies, abstracts, charts, summaries, and notes made from material properly designated as Confidential. Nothing in this Order shall be construed as conferring blanket protection on all disclosures or responses to discovery or as constituting a determination of the relevance or admissibility of any discovery materials.

III. Nothing in this Order is intended to diminish the protections afforded Protected Health Information ("PHI") under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") and 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e). However, the reference to "observers" in paragraph 2 of the proposed order is stricken.

IV. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Protective Order, the parties are advised that if they seek to seal documents as to matters not related to discovery, such as dispositive motions or trial materials, the Court may revisit the provisions of this protective order in order to tailor more narrowly the appropriate scope of sealing and redacting of information in light of the right of the public to inspect judicial documents under both the First Amendment and under common law.

V. The parties must comply with procedures of the Clerk's Office and this Court's Chambers Rules as to documents to be filed under seal or filed with redactions.1 This process requires that a party seeking to seal a document must first file a Motion for Leave to e-file a sealed document, with the proposed sealed documents attached to the motion. The ECF system will notify the party when the motion is granted and provide instructions for filing the sealed document, using both the appropriate event for the motion and the sealed document event. If leave to file under seal is granted and if the document contains relevant information that is not confidential, the filing party will be required to file publicly a copy of the sealed document with the confidential information redacted.

VI. The parties must use best efforts to minimize the number and extent of documents filed under seal. Prior to seeking leave to file a document containing Confidential Materials under seal, a party must determine whether the material that gives rise to a "Confidential" designation is relevant and necessary to the filing and whether redaction of the confidential materials may eliminate the need for sealing the document. If the material that is confidential is not relevant to the filing and there is no need to seal the remainder of the document, the document should be filed unsealed, with the confidential information redacted.

If the parties intend to file documents that include Confidential Material in connection with a motion, they must, if possible, propose a schedule for briefing of a motion which includes a short delay in filing submissions so the parties will have time to confer on minimizing the volume of documents that a party will seek to file under seal or to avoid having to file a motion to seal.

VII. If the information that is confidential is relevant to the filing, the document containing such information may be filed under seal, with the following limitations:

VIII. The parties should make best efforts to file sealed documents electronically. If a party has to file a hard copy, any such submission must be accompanied by a cover sheet in accordance with the form "Notice Regarding the filing of Exhibits in Paper Form," in the CM/ECF User's Guide. The Notice must also be filed electronically. Any sealing envelope should clearly describe the document to be sealed and identify the document number on the docket sheet that corresponds to such sealed document. Each envelope submitted for sealing may contain only one document or portions of one filing (such as multiple exhibits annexed to a document filed).

IX. A party submitting a document under seal or filing a document with redacted information must provide the District Judge and/or Magistrate Judge to be handling the application or motion at issue with a complete and un-redacted copy of the submission that is marked to indicate that the document is filed under seal, if applicable, and what portions of the submission are confidential. The first page of the document must clearly indicate that the document or portions thereof are filed under seal or with redactions and the assigned ECF document number.

X. Any Confidential Material which is publicly disclosed by the affected persons shall, upon disclosure, automatically cease to be confidential or highly confidential information entitled to protection by this Order. Such public disclosure includes a filing with any governmental agency or department of any document containing confidential material which is subject to access by the public.

SO ORDERED.

HIPAA/CONFIDENTIALITY STIPULATION & ORDER

The parties hereto, defendant P.S.C. COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC. ("PSC" or "Employer") by and through its attorneys, Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC, and plaintiff ZOYA VASILEVSKAYA ("Vasilevskaya" or "Employee"), by and through her attorneys, Sobel Law Offices PC, hereby stipulate to this HIPAA/CONFIDENTIALITY STIPULATION and ORDER ("Stipulation and Order") limiting the disclosure of confidential information which has been requested and may be revealed in the course of discovery, including HIPAA-protected patient information, social security numbers and confidential patient or personnel information, among other private and sensitive materials (collectively referred to as "Confidential Information" as defined below).

The parties having agreed to the terms of this Stipulation and Order, and the Court having found that there is good cause for the issuance of this Stipulation and Order, it is hereby ORDERED as follows:

1. Scope. This Stipulation and Order shall govern the handling of all "Confidential Information" (as hereinafter defined), disclosed pre-trial in the course of or in connection with the above-captioned action (the "Action"), including, without limitation, discovery demands, testimony, documents, items produced or revealed in discovery, and court filings.

2. HIPAA Compliance. The undersigned agree that any and all "protected health information," as defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"), 45 C.F.R. §164.501, that may be disclosed during the Action shall automatically be designated as "Confidential Information" and subject to the terms of this Stipulation and Order, to assure the privacy and protection of such information. All protected health information used or disclosed in the Proceeding shall be: (i) redacted to avoid patient identifying information; (ii) used only for the purposes of this action; (iii) maintained as confidential pursuant to and in compliance with HIPAA; and (iv) handled in accordance with this Stipulation and Order and returned to the producing party at the conclusion of this action. The parties, witnesses, participants and observers in the Action are prohibited from disclosing any protected health information or patient-identifying information for any purpose other than the Proceeding or in any communication outside the Proceeding. In the event that any protected health information produced or disclosed in this Action inadvertently includes any patient-identifying information, whether at the time of disclosure or thereafter, it shall immediately be redacted by the party discovering such omission, and the other party shall be immediately notified of the omission. The parties are instructed to use identifying letters or initials when referring to patients at depositions. If patient names or identifying information are inadvertently revealed in deposition testimony, they shall be redacted from the original transcript and all copies by the certified reporting service, and replaced with identifying letter or initials.

3. Social Security Numbers. The Social Security Numbers ("SSN") of any nonparty shall be redacted. In the event that any SSN of a third party is inadvertently not redacted, whether at the time of disclosure or thereafter, it shall immediately be redacted for all originals and copies by the party discovering such omission. SSNs of non-parties shall not be included to in depositions.

4. Confidential Information. "Confidential Information" as used herein shall refer to and incorporate (a) any and all patient records or records of patient care or treatment, including and any patient-identifying information, whether or not redacted, and whether or not stamped "Confidential," (b) SSNs of any patient or employee, whether or not stamped "Confidential," and (c) any confidential patient-related or private personnel-related information of non-party patients or employees designated as "Confidential" by any party to this Action.

5. Disclosure of Confidential Information. All Confidential Information produced by any party shall be maintained by the other in confidence to be used solely for the purposes of this action, and shall not be used or disclosed in any communication outside this action, except as expressly permitted elsewhere in this Stipulation and Order, or by the Court.

i. counsel of record for the parties and regular employees of such counsel assisting in the conduct of this action;

ii. experts or consultants retained or employed by the parties or their counsel, as long as they have signed a copy of the Certification annexed to this Stipulation and Order;

iii. witnesses or prospective witnesses from whom testimony is taken or may be taken in this action, as well as any stenographer who has been hired to produce a transcript of any deposition taken in this action, provided that each such witness or prospective witness has first signed a copy of the Certification annexed to this Stipulation and Order; and

iv. the Court, jury, or other court personnel in this action.

6. Designation Continues. Information designated or defined herein as "Confidential" shall continue to be treated as such until this designation is revoked by order of a Court of competent jurisdiction.

7. Court Filings. Any document to be filed with the Court that contains Patient Identifying Information or other HIPAA-protected confidential information shall be filed under seal in an envelope on which a statement substantially in the following form shall be written: "CONFIDENTIAL — This envelope contains documents and/or information that are SUBJECT TO A CONFIDENTIALITY ORDER ENTERED BY THE COURT." All such material so filed shall be maintained by the Court Clerk separate from the public records in this action and shall not be released except upon the stipulation of the parties or further Order of the Court.

8. Return of Confidential Information. Within forty-five (45) days of the conclusion or termination of the Action for any reason, including all appeals or periods of time within which an appeal could be taken, each party shall either (a) return all Confidential Information to the attorneys for PSC and upon request shall certify completion of such in writing, or (b) shall certify that all such material has been destroyed, provided however, that each party may maintain one original of any confidential materials filed in Court, to be maintained exclusively with the party's attorneys in a secure manner, as a permanent record.

9. Plaintiff's Personnel File. Ms. Vasilevskaya consents to the disclosure of her personnel file and SSN in this Action, subject to all evidentiary objections. Furthermore, such disclosure is subject to the confidentiality provisions hereof.

10. Non-Admission. Nothing in this Stipulation and Order, nor any action taken in compliance with it, shall operate as an admission by any party that any particular document, testimony or information is or is not relevant or admissible. Further, nothing in this Stipulation and Order shall affect the admissibility or non-admissibility of documents or other evidence at trial or in connection with any motion or motion papers. Any material designated as Confidential Information may be offered into evidence, subject to such separate confidentiality provisions, if any, as the Court may direct at the time of such offer; and its admission or nonadmission into evidence shall be determined by the Court independently of this Stipulation and Order.

11. No Preclusion. Subject to all other rules of evidence, nothing in this Stipulation and Order shall preclude either party from using Confidential Information produced in discovery, or as redacted in this litigation, to support its case. Nothing in this Stipulation and Order shall preclude either party from making further or additional discovery requests relating to matters contained in Confidential Information, to the extent such further discovery is otherwise permissible, and subject to the rights of the opposing party to interpose such objections, if any, as may apply. Nothing in this Stipulation and Order shall limit or restrict PSC from using its internal personnel information or patient information contained in its files or records for any and all lawful and usual PSC business and purposes.

12. No Prejudice to Entry of Other Orders. This Stipulation and Order is without prejudice to other or different confidentiality provisions or protections that may be sought or applied for during this litigation or in connection with trial. Nothing herein shall limit either party from seeking such other confidentiality protections at trial as may be required in the circumstances.

13. The signatures of counsel bind the parties to the terms of this Stipulation and Order.

IT IS SO ORDERED.