Cross-posted from PogoWasRight.org: I recently commented on the rush to class action lawsuits that seems to have become the norm. Today, I was interested to see this column by John Halamka, MD, CIO, CareGroup Health System, Harvard Medical School. He writes, in part: As with any profession there are those attorneys who use the law for personal…
Category: Health Data
MA: Spectrum says personal, health care info stolen
A local health systems company said a stolen hard drive contains personal and protected health information of some of its clients. According to a statement from Spectrum, no financial information was on the hard drive, and the data was double password protected. However, it was not encrypted because it was being used temporarily, and patient…
Medical identity theft a growing problem
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…
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