Brendon Tavelli writes: On January 5, 2010, Judge William Hibbler of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois became the latest federal district judge to share his views about whether an increased risk of future harm based on the inadvertent exposure of personal information is a legally cognizable harm. In Rowe v….
Category: Health Data
Lawsuit against Health Net first suit under HITECH
As reported here Wednesday, Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has filed suit against Health Net for failing to secure member information and for failure to notify members of a security breach in a timely fashion. United Health Group and Oxford Health Plans are also named as defendants in the suit because although they were not…
FEATURED: Medical Identity Theft Is Low-Tech, High-Risk and Rapidly Growing
Reprinted from REPORT ON PATIENT PRIVACY, the industry’s most practical source of news on HIPAA patient privacy provisions. By Liana Heitin, Editor With many legislators, law enforcement officials, and privacy experts now calling it the fastest-growing type of crime, medical identity theft has emerged as a forefront issue for health care providers. And while ID…
(follow-up) Ca: Durham told to encrypt health data on mobile devices
Ontario’s privacy commissioner is ordering Durham Region’s health officer to ensure medical data is encrypted on portable devices. The order follows an incident in December when the health data of more than 83,000 people who received H1N1 flu shots went missing. A nurse was taking a USB key containing the records to her car in…
Health Net statement in response to CT lawsuit
I received the following statement from Health Net in response to my request for a statement: Health Net of Connecticut Statement – January 13, 2010 Protecting the privacy of our members is extremely important to us. Health Net’s company policy states that data must be encrypted and secured. Health Net has just received a copy…
(follow-up) Stolen Tenn. BlueCross hard drives affect at least 220,000
The Associated Press reports that BCBS in Chattanooga now says that 220,000 members had personal information on the hard drives reported stolen in October, but that the number could go up to 500,000. In other words, they still don’t know who had what on the stolen hard drives. By today’s standards, it’s taking them too…