81 FR 1422 - Henry Schein Practice Solutions, Inc.; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 7 (January 12, 2016)

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.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 12, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1422-1423]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00369]


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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.

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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.
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    \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).
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    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