Kate Foster of Scotland on Sunday reports: THE loss of confidential personal data has become so widespread that patients’ groups last night launched a campaign to tighten up security in the NHS. The move comes as Scotland on Sunday reveals hundreds of cases of breaches concerning patients’ notes. Two lost USB computer memory sticks containing…
Author: Dissent
Data miners track docs' habits
Matthew Perrone of the Associated Press reports: When most patients go to the pharmacy to fill a new prescription, they don’t think twice about turning over the note from their doctor. After all, how much could the scrawled handwriting on that tiny slip be worth? Not much to the average consumer — but to big…
Prescription tracking creates privacy threat (editorial)
[…] The push for monitoring is coming not just from doctors and public health officials but the attorney general’s office. And it would likely be a useful tool. But it’s easy to imagine a time when lobbyists could convince lawmakers that the drug problem has become severe enough to grant law enforcement agencies unfettered access…
ID theft scheme brings sentence for Oklahoma City woman (follow-up)
Jay F. Marks reports: An Oklahoma City woman was sentenced Friday to more than a year in prison for violating a federal health privacy law in an identity theft scheme. Leslie A. Howell pleaded guilty in May to violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law meant to protect patients’…
TX: Dentist charged with taping people in restroom
AP reports: A dentist accused of videotaping people using the bathroom at his clinic faces charges of improper photography, authorities said. Byron Weinle was charged Thursday on four counts, accused of secretly videotaping patients and employees. Two women who work at the clinic tipped authorities after finding videotapes inside Weinle’s office, officials said. Read more…
Medical identity theft spreads
Judith Graham reports: The problem of medical identity theft is on the rise, and it’s often an inside job, experts say. Between 250,000 and 500,000 people have their medical identities stolen each year, said Pam Dixon, who heads the World Privacy Forum, a non-profit group that helps victims of identity theft. Most of the perpetrators…