On June 10, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield notified the Maryland Attorney General’s Office of a breach involving member information. According to their letter, a CareFirst associate leaving the Canton office did not transport member information securely. As a result, part of a member’s file fell out of the associate’s bag, where it was discovered by someone…
Category: Health Data
VA monthly report for September reveals possible access control issue
The Department of Veterans Affairs has released its monthly report to Congress on data breaches. For the period August 30 – October 3, the reported incidents included: 33 incidents involving mis-mailed prescription medication packages by the Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy [out of 7,144,426 total packages (10,510,547 total prescriptions) and 60 Mis-Handling incidents (these might involve…
CIO Fired After Others May Have Accessed Her EHR
Gerry Higgins writes: A prominent CIO of a regional hospital system encountered the limitations of HIPAA and so-called “Protected Health Information (PHI)” when her boss fired her after a short medical leave of absence. After years working without taking vacation, a family catastrophe that affected her health prompted her to take a medical leave of…
A third of Spanish hospitals breach the Data Protection Act
One in three Spanish hospitals are in breach of the Data Protection behave, disturbing research has revealed. Some 30 per cent of public hospitals have no measures in place to prevent the loss of, or unauthorised access to, patients’ data during transport or whilst filed. A further 40 per cent of state hospitals, and 15…
Two charged with credit union theft that allegedly used Navy clinic data
Another case allegedly involving theft of patient data for fraud. John Wharton reports from Maryland: St. Mary’s grand jurors have charged two county residents with stealing from the Navy Federal Credit Union, in a scheme that law officers allege misappropriated the personal information of Navy health clinic patients. Donna Mason, a 41-year-old Lexington Park woman,…
Data breach in 2005 fueled a long-running massive Medicare fraud scheme
An indictment unveiled in New York today concerning a huge Medicare fraud scheme reveals how both medical professionals and patients may have their identities stolen in furtherance of fraud. And in this case, a data breach years ago provided much of the identity information needed. William K. Rashbaum and Michael Wilson report: An Armenian-American crime…