Author: Dissent

CMS is developing a pilot program to test options for beneficiaries to be able to maintain their health records electronically. Under this pilot in Arizona and Utah, a beneficiary may choose one of the selected commercial PHR tools, and Medicare will transfer up to two years of the individual’s claims data into the individual’s PHR….

Amanda Crook reports: A DIARY containing contact details of 350 new mums and mums-to-be has been lost. A community midwife, who works at Rochdale Infirmary and has not been named, has lost her appointments diary which contained the names, addresses and phone numbers of women in her care. Full story – Manchester Evening News

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has apologised to a Westport woman for requesting her medical files without her consent. But Jessica Adamson, 66, is still waiting for the West Coast District Health Board (WCDHB) to explain why it gave her files to ACC without asking or telling her. Mrs Adamson is fighting ACC for compensation…

Manassas police are warning citizens about credit cards thefts from visitors and patients at local hospitals. In these incidents, thieves hang around hospital lobby waiting areas and seek out elderly visitors and patients to rob, police said. […] Police said similar incidents happened during summer and fall of 2007. They said Potomac Hospital in Prince…

The News 4 Trouble Shooters found a gold mine at a local drug treatment center. Hundreds of private, personal records thrown out with the trash. Information that, by law, must be protected. A tip led the Trouble Shooters to the dumpster behind Treatment Associates, located at 701 San Pedro, near downtown. We pulled out more…

Over on HealthBlawg, David Harlow has a thoughtful commentary on the revelations of a huge DNS security hole for the adoption of EHR and PHR.  An excerpt: Providers that have not adopted EHR systems to date could use this sort of news as an additional excuse to try to delay the inevitable.  A study published…