WellCare Health Plans Inc. has blamed human error for the disclosure on the Internet of some data for its Medicaid members in Georgia.The data included personal identifying information for some members of Georgia Families, WellCare said in a release. The files included information such as members’ names, birth dates, dates of eligibility, member ID numbers…
Author: Dissent
New Player in Personal DNA Profiling Emphasizes Privacy
Jacob Goldstein writes in The Wall Street Journal Health Blog: Another company is jumping into the growing world of direct-to-consumer DNA testing today. For $2,500, Navigenics will tell you your genetic risk for 18 different diseases — at least according to the best available genetic studies. Another $250 a year gets you an ongoing subscription…
Gaps In Hospital Security Policies Put Patient Data At Risk
From Kroll’s press release: Best practices in data security cannot be achieved by employee training alone. Organizations must make data security a part of their DNA, reflected in every aspect of business operations. The healthcare industry’s focus on medical privacy and compliance has fostered a lack of awareness around the frequency, cause and seriousness of…
Your medical history is a click away
Katie Foutz has an article in the Naperville Sun that starts out by describing how helpful it can be to have electronic health records: […] While victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita relocated to places around the country, they couldn’t always remember the names or dosages of the medications their Gulf Coast doctors had prescribed….
Schwarzenegger Calls For Stronger Privacy Of Medical Records
Catharine Paddock, PhD has an article in Medical News Today about the recent revelations of privacy breaches at UCLA and how Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling for stronger protections. Schwarzenegger himself has been in the situation of celebrity patient and reports that his privacy was invaded, too. What he describes, however, is more than just…
Pointer: Medical records are not so private
Karen Goldberg Goff’s piece in today’s Washington Times contains quotes from a number of privacy organizations and professionals in health care about the security issues, HIPAA, and privacy of records, such as: “There is good and bad about electronic records,” says Robert Gellman, a District-based privacy consultant. “There is a lot of promise about medicine…