This must be the month to sue major pharmaceutical chains for allegedly selling patient prescription information. First it was CVS. Now it’s Walgreen. Reuters Legal reports: A lawsuit filed in California this week accuses national drug-store chain Walgreen Co of unlawfully selling medical information gleaned from patient prescriptions, another front in the battle over personal…
Category: Health Data
Identity data of Texas Children’s doctors used in scam (updated)
In a follow-up to a breach reported last month on this blog, Brian Rogers reports: A Pearland man has been charged with identity theft in a scheme that used Social Security numbers of doctors and vendors at Texas Children’s Hospital to open more than 100 electricity accounts, prosecutors said. […] In court today, Assistant Harris…
Stolen laptop creates concern for Ortho Montana patients (update2)
Rob Rogers reports: OrthoMontana is scrambling to warn current and past patients that their personal information may be on a laptop computer that was recently stolen from the company. The Billings orthopedic and sports medicine practice has sent letters across the city to those who may have been impacted. […] The laptop was heavily encrypted…
Malware discovered on UMass Amherst server left patient info vulnerable
The following statement was posted on UMass Amherst’s web site on March 7: The University of Massachusetts Amherst is notifying clients of University Health Services (UHS) whose protected health information was possibly revealed after a workstation was inadvertently infected with a malware program. The malware infection occurred on June 30, 2010 and the vulnerability on…
CVS Accused in Suit of Using Customers' Pharmacy Data for Drug Companies
Sophia Pearson reports: CVS Caremark Corp., the largest U.S. provider of prescription drugs, was sued over claims it used confidential prescription information to push products on behalf of pharmaceutical makers. CVS violated the privacy and rights of consumers by sending letters to customers’ physicians that promoted specific medications, according to a complaint filed March 7…
Ca: Bureaucrats who violated veteran's privacy get ‘slap on the wrist’
Murray Brewster reports what is undoubtedly a lame and disappointing response to an egregious privacy breach: Veterans Affairs bureaucrats who rifled through the personal files of a department critic were handed written reprimands and three-day suspensions – penalties the victim calls a “slap on the wrist.” An internal investigation found 54 veterans bureaucrats improperly snooped…