A bill allowing marketers hired by drug companies to secretly access patient prescription drug records failed to get a single “yes” in a key vote Tuesday in the Assembly Health Committee. Though some members who did not vote could technically cast votes before the end of the day, the failure of the measure (SB1096 by…
Author: Dissent
HIPAA Creating Barriers to Research and Discovery
The Association of Academic Health Centers has released a paper that concludes that HIPAA is a significant obstacle to biomedical research. From their paper [pdf]: Recommendations In order to ensure that American science can flourish, there is a need to address HIPAA-related barriers that are impeding research. The AAHC recommends the following: The Department of…
Local Man Sentenced For Deleting Medical Records
A disgruntled worker is paying the price for deleting medical records, 10News reported. Jon Paul Oson, of Chula Vista, was sentenced to more than 5 years in prison for hacking into the database of a local health clinic. It was the very person trusted to protect the Council of Community Health Clinics who went on…
ONCHIT hires tech firm to tackle medical identity theft problem
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has awarded approximately $450,000 to Booz Allen Hamilton, a strategy and consulting technology firm, to assess and evaluate the scope of the medical identity theft problem in the United States. The purpose of the…
Security sweep at NHS sites
Marjory Inglis of the Evening Telegraph reports: A report on an internal investigation into the events at Strathmartine was forwarded to the Scottish Government on Friday. The Government and the UK data watchdog launched investigations after the furore over Strathmartine. Local health chiefs came under fire last month after private records were found strewn around…
Blue Cross plans Web access to records
Jeffrey Krasner of The Boston Globe reports: Come this fall, members of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts will be able to go online to look up their healthcare claims and some medical records, which the insurer says will help patients manage their medical care and have more productive discussions with doctors. The feature…