Sarah Rubenstein writes in the Wall Street Journal: In a development that consumer groups say raises privacy issues, a growing number of hospitals are mining patients’ personal financial information to figure out how likely they are to pay their bills. Some hospitals are peering into patients’ credit reports, which contain information on people’s lines of…
Author: Dissent
Electronic health records touted
Dennis E. Curran writes in the Wyoming Business Report: A team of federal health officials visited Wyoming today to tout the economic and health advantages of using electronic health records and to urge Wyoming to apply for inclusion in a new electronic health records demonstration project. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the…
Web site breach of The Dental Network exposes patients' information
A security breach of The Dental Network web site left access to member personal data, including names, Social Security numbers, address(es) and dates of birth unprotected for approximately two weeks. According to a letter dated March 10th to the New Hampshire Department of Justice, TDN discovered the breach on February 20th. The Dental Network is…
LA court rules on computer search in Anna Nicole Smith drug probe
Raquel Maria Dillon of the Associated Press writes: A Los Angeles judge has issued a ruling on a search of a computer seized from a psychiatrist in an investigation of drug prescriptions issued to Anna Nicole Smith after her overdose death last year. An attorney for Dr. Khristine Eroshevich sought Monday to have the computer…
Healthcare practitioners with drug problems hidden by the system
Is your medical privacy dependent, in part, on whether you are a healthcare professional? John Dorschner and Patrick Danner write in the Miami Herald: In August 2006, the former wife of a Broward psychologist sent a letter to state authorities saying she had visited his home ‘and saw cocaine paraphernalia, an empty bottle of Oxycontin…
Outsourcing the Patients
Bruce Einhorn writes in BusinessWeek: For years, Americans have been traveling abroad to save money on elective procedures or dental work. David Boucher, 49, doesn’t fit the usual profile for such medical tourists. An assistant vice-president of health-care services at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina, he has ample health benefits. But Boucher…