Pamela Lewis Dolan reports: One-third of health care organizations, including physician practices, insurers and pharmacies, have reported catching a patient using the identity of someone else to obtain services, according to a report from the professional services firm PwC. […] Medical identity theft is still a small percentage of the total amount of identity theft…
Category: Health Data
GA: Law firm's documents dumped in trash
Ashley Fielding reports: Files containing private information of clients of one of Gainesville’s best-known attorneys showed up in the strangest of places last week — a newspaper recycling bin at The Times. The files came from the law office of Ashley Bell, a member of the Hall County Board of Commissioners, who said he wasn’t…
Lesson learned from a data breach: "Trust but verify"
Tony Kennedy and Maura Lerner report on the aftermath of a contractor breach that affected patients at Fairview and North Memorial hospitals in Minnesota. For those who may not recall the Accretive breach, the reporters provide a summary: On the night of July 28, according to police reports, a consultant named Matthew Doyle, who worked…
Three more breaches
The following entries have been added to HHS’s breach tool, although I haven’t as yet found any media coverage or notices to explain them: “Diversified Resources, Inc.”,GA, 863, 8/11/2011, Theft,Laptop “Health Research Institute, Inc., Pfeiffer Treatment Center”,IL, 2,000, 7/1/2011, Theft,”Desktop Computer, Network Server” “Freda J. Bowman MD, PA”, TX,” 1,300, 8/8/2011,”Unauthorized Access/Disclsoure, Hacking/IT Incident”,Network Server
Defense Dept. hit with $4.9B lawsuit over data breach
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: The U.S. Department of Defense has been hit with a $4.9 billion lawsuit over a recently disclosed data breach involving TRICARE, a healthcare system for active and retired military personnel and their families. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington D.C. this week by four people whose data was allegedly compromised, seeks…
IM: Memory stick with private details of mental health patients is lost
A memory stick containing confidential information on people with learning disabilities and with mental illness has been lost. Although the memory stick was lost in August, the news has only been revealed today by the Department of Social Care. It was lost by an employee of Praxis Care Isle of Man which ‘provides a range…