When HITECH was passed as part of the stimulus bill, it introduced new data breach notification requirements, including a requirement that breaches of unsecured personal health information held by covered entities or their business associates affecting more than 500 individuals be reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The requirement was somewhat…
Category: Health Data
Ca: Alarming breach in privacy investigated at London school
An armload of personal documents — health records and criminal record checks among them — was found carelessly tossed out by a private vocational school in London, an alarming breach of security, the school’s director says. The bulk of the documents included criminal record checks, transcripts, diplomas, doctors’ notes, immunization and vaccination forms, health card…
Charlie Sheen's Wife In New Rehab, Plans Suit
Brooke Mueller, Charlie Sheen’s wife, is in a new rehab facility and she plans to sue the one she just left for allegedly violating her privacy … TMZ has learned. Brooke’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, tells TMZ, “Brooke was forced to leave The Canyon rehab facility because of the security breach.” As TMZ first reported, someone…
UK: Patients' secrets dumped in alley
David Mercer reports: Medical records containing details of hundreds of Wigan patients have been found dumped by a former health centre. Highly personal information in three diaries was discovered outside the disused building in Tram Street, Platt Bridge. It includes names, addresses and medical complaints of patients requiring doctors’ visits in 1988, 1990 and 1991….
UK: Patients are sent wrong medical details
An angry Lancashire dad has hit out at bungling office staff who got sensitive medical files mixed up. Chris Martin, 45, sent off a dossier of highly personal information as he negotiated his return to work following illness. But staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) returned his file full of someone else’s…
Data security breaches often triggered by carelessness
Pamela Lewis Nolan reports: Often the biggest threat to your practice and patient data is not an outside hacker or a snooping employee — it’s somebody’s forgetfulness. […] Credant Technologies, a Dallas-based data protection solutions company, noted in a 2008 survey that although more than a third of health care professionals store patient data on…