On August 19, 2009, the state DPA in North Rhine-Westphalia fined a subsidiary of the discount supermarket chain Lidl € 36,000 (approximately $51,000) for illegally keeping records of employee health data. The case was triggered by a report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel. A Bochum resident found papers and forms containing Lidl employees’…
Author: Dissent
Two will plead guilty to HIPAA violations
United States Attorney Joyce White Vance announced that Isaac Earl Smith, 38, and Annetra Poole-Moore, 37, have agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes involving health care fraud, disclosures prohibited by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and aggravated identify theft. Between about September 2008 and April 2009, Smith, of Pleasant Grove, and…
St. Luke's worker accused of stealing and using Allentown patient's credit card
One of those “small” cases that are of, course, not “small” at all to those affected: A St. Luke’s Hospital-Allentown employee has been charged with stealing a patient’s credit card and using it to make $179 in purchases at the Kohl’s store in Whitehall Township. Luz Davilla, 34, of 1839 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, was…
Former State Employee Faces Theft Charges
A former employee of the Oregon Department of Human Services has been indicted on accusations he stole at least $14,750 in state money. The worker, 34-year-old Naudaan Hurh, faces 18 felony counts, including charges of aggravated theft, identity theft and computer crime, Attorney General John Kroger said in a news release. Read more on KPTV
Canada to probe mortgage brokerages
The federal privacy commissioner is auditing a number of mortgage brokerages because of concerns about the security of borrowers’ personal financial information, The Globe and Mail has learned. The audit, which industry sources say began this month, is looking into the potential misuse of consumers’ information to carry out fraud such as identity theft…. “The…
SSA testing Microsoft HealthVault
The Social Security Administration has entered into an agreement to test the use of the Microsoft HealthVault software for SSA’s disability determination process. SSA has been trying out several ways to collect electronically the health records of people applying for disability income. SSA currently requests about 15 million to 20 million medical records a year…