Ellen Nakashima reports in the Washington Post: Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health “credit report” drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans. […] Traditionally, insurance companies have judged an applicant’s risk by gathering medical…
Author: Dissent
UK: Patient files found in corridor
Confidential patient files have been left lying in a corridor at St George’s Hospital in south London. The files were found by a BBC London reporter on Thursday after a tip-off. The find comes months after six laptops containing information about 20,000 patients were stolen from a locked cabinet at the same hospital. St George’s…
New Privacy Risk: Patients Who Assume Someone Else's Identity to Obtain Treatment
Reprinted from REPORT ON PATIENT PRIVACY, the industry’s most practical source of news on HIPAA patient privacy provisions. A new gray cloud has arrived on the privacy officer’s skyline and it promises to be as vexing as figuring out the privacy rule was back in 2002: patients who assume the identity of another person in…
UK: Laptop with 1,500 patients' details stolen
Brian Lashley reports: A LAPTOP containing confidential patient data has been stolen from a hospital by a burglar who climbed through an unlocked window. The computer holds personal information about 1,581 patients attending a clinic at Stepping Hill Hospital, Hazel Grove, Stockport. Hospital chiefs said the data is protected by a complex password system, which…
Capitol Hill Watch | Kennedy-Enzi EHR Bill Likely To Be Delayed Until After August Recess
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…
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…