Opinion piece by Maureen Martin, senior fellow for legal affairs at The Heartland Institute: Maureen Martin of The Heartland Institute, a think tank promoting public policy based on individual liberty, limited government and free markets, argues that the new Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act  exposes too much personal information. When President…
Author: Dissent
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: Glenn Love II pleaded guilty to conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for stealing more than 80 people’s identities by pretending to be a fraud investigator. Charges are pending against Vickie Parks Sheppard, who allegedly assisted him. More. Faced with a mountain of medical bills for her ailing husband, the lending director…
HHS Secretary nominee pushes HIT’s role in data mining even as new report of stolen electronic medical records surfaces
On Tuesday, HHS Secretary nominee, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, confirmed her support for the use of electronic medical records as a way of data mining patient information. During the Senate hearings on her confirmation, Gov. Sebelius said that electronic health records (EHR) data was crucial to conduct “comparative effectiveness research [CER] to provide information on…
MD: State employee information lost in the mail
Gadi Dechter of The Baltimore Sun reports: The names and Social Security numbers of about 8,000 state employees and retirees were in a report “lost in the mail” this month, raising concerns about identity theft and questions about why sensitive information was sent through the postal service rather than electronically. […] On March 3, the…
MA: Patients’ files poised at trash bin
Kay Lazar of The Boston Globe reports: Hundreds of medical records kept by a longtime Acton family doctor who abruptly closed his practice last year are about to be destroyed, leaving patients without crucial information and exposing a gap in state law about who owns abandoned medical records. On April 8, a Lynn storage company…
UK: Medical records found in corridor
An investigation has been launched into why crates of medical records were left lying unattended in a corridor at a Scottish hospital. The records, which contained highly personal information, were discovered by a member of the public at the Southern General hospital in Glasgow. Read more on BBC.