From HHS: The managed care company WellPoint Inc. has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) $1.7 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules. This case sends an important message to HIPAA-covered entities to take caution when…
Category: Health Data
Notice Regarding Microfiche Incident for Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth Patients (UPDATED)
Update: The Star-Telegram reports that 277,000 are being notified of this breach. Original post: Texas Health Resources posted the following notice on their site. Unfortunately, the home page link simply says “Microfiche Incident” and does not alert site visitors to check that link for an important privacy breach notification: Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort…
UK: The cancer diagnosis letter found in a car park, voicemails to the wrong person and a gate-crashed consultation: Hospital data breaches up 20% in a year
Madlen Davies reports: Hospitals have seen the number of confidentiality breaches and losses of patient data rise by a fifth over the past year, with thousands of such incidents reported, a Pulse investigation reveals. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 55 hospital trusts who were able to provide comparable year-on-year statistics show…
Shining some light on medical privacy and security breaches in California; over 13,000 reported in 3+ years
The California Department of Public Health recently added a breach report to its web site involving California Hospital Medical Center – LA. According to their report of November 2010, in May 2010, the police department discovered face sheets with 102 patients’ names, financial, insurance, and diagnostic information in the trunk of a patient accounts representative’s…
Breach-related lawsuit against Adventist Health dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction
Law360 reports that Adventist Hospital System/Sunbelt Inc. succeeded in getting a federal court to dismiss a potential class action lawsuit against it. As noted previously on this blog, the lawsuit stemmed from employees at Florida Hospital Celebration selling patient information. Adventist had moved to dismiss Richard Faircloth’s lawsuit on grounds that the federal court lacked…
llinois health agency notifies 3,100 Cook County residents of mailing error disclosing PHI
WLS reports: The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services says information on about 3,100 clients in Cook County may have been released. It says a managed care contractor accidentally sent client ID cards to the wrong addresses. The personal information on the Family Health Network ID card included member name, state issued Medicaid number…