Author: Dissent

According to a report provided to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, an employee mistakenly transmitted an encrypted Excel file with enrollment data for Reed Smith to the another group customer. The file containing names, addresses, dates of birth, identification numbers (which are the individuals’ Social Security numbers), type of insurance contract, effective date,  and group…

Over on The Breach Blog, Evan Francen has written up some of the P2P breaches uncovered by Red Team Protection. It makes for fascinating reading, and a cautionary tale. If you have any patient or confidential information on your computer, installing or running file-sharing programs may result in you sharing much more than you intended…

Jennifer Nelson reports: When Brandon Sharp, 37, of Spring, Tex., applied for his first home loan, his lender called with bad news: The $20,000 in unpaid hospital bills on his credit report had damaged his chances for a mortgage. But Sharp hadn’t had any health problems. He was a victim of medical ID theft. Someone…

Brian Wheeler reports: The idea of people you have never met before leafing through your medical records would make most people a little uneasy. Even if the people in question are highly qualified health professionals. Read more in the BBC

Dan Shortridge reports: A printing error disclosed the private medical information of about 3,700 Blue Cross Blue Shield members in Delaware to other insurance company subscribers. People who were affected by the problem should have received letters today notifying them of the accidental disclosure. […] The problem centers around explanation of benefits forms that were…

Karen Welles of WPXI reports: From April 2003 until the end of last year, the federal government has received nearly 1,500 complaints from patients in Pennsylvania, alleging privacy violations under HIPAA. One case has angered local women so much that they switched doctors. It centers on a myspace page created in the name of Stephanie…