Additional action on a bill (S 1693) that would create a national electronic health records system likely will be delayed until after Congress’ August recess, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said on Thursday, CongressDaily reports. Enzi introduced the bill in 2007 with committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). According…
Author: Dissent
UK: Stolen medical van contained patient information
A health service van carrying sensitive information has been stolen from a Kent surgery. The driver of the vehicle walked into the surgery in Cheriton Road, Folkestone, and when he returned to unload the van it was gone. Vans run between William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and local GP surgeries twice daily transporting patient samples…
FL: Patient Files Found in Folkston Trash at a Closed Physicians' Office Yields a Box of Abandoned Medical Records
Gordon Jackson reports: FOLKSTON – Residents combing through trash left at a closed physicians’ office under renovation found a box of medical records this week. […] The records were apparently left in the office when physicians closed their practices there several years ago. The unidentified woman who discovered the records turned them over to…
OH: Judge Grants Medical Privacy Injunction
A federal judge in Ohio has granted a preliminary injunction against the city of Columbus, in response to a request from two dispatchers who claim that the police department’s sick leave practices violate several privacy laws and the Constitution. Dispatchers Carrie Best and Cheri Bowman say that the department’s paperwork procedures for absence-without-leave and sick…
GA: Private medical data exposed
Andy Miller reports: Georgia’s largest health insurer sent an estimated 202,000 benefits letters containing personal and health information to the wrong addresses last week, in a privacy breach that also raised concerns about potential identity theft. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia said Monday that the erroneous mailings were primarily Explanation of Benefits (EOB)…
They Know What's in Your Medicine Cabinet
Last week in BusinessWeek, Chad Terhune reported: That prescription you just picked up at the drugstore could hurt your chances of getting health insurance. An untold number of people have been rejected for medical coverage for a reason they never could have guessed: Insurance companies are using huge, commercially available prescription databases to screen out…