Category: Health Data

I’m was somewhat confused by this news reports of another Health Net settlement with Connecticut over a 2009 breach. Matthew Sturdevant reports: Health Net faces a $375,000 fine for a security breach that happened last year at the insurer’s Northeast headquarters in Shelton, the Connecticut Insurance Department said Monday. A portable, external hard drive was lost or stolen…

Private medical practices lag behind hospitals in performing risk analysis and implementing information security controls, a survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) found. According to the 2010 HIMSS Security Survey, sponsored by Intel and supported by the Medical Group Management Association, 33% of medical practices said they did not conduct a security…

More than 40 serious incidents and cases of malpractice were reported at West Midlands Ambulance Service in three years, including people falling off stretchers in ambulances and one crew failing to notice its patient had died. According to details released under the Freedom of Information Act, there have been 45 serious untoward incidents reported at…

Dom Nicastro writes: Hospitals spend $6 billion annually because of data breaches, and Federal regulations enacted under the HITECH Act have not improved the safety of patient records research from The Ponemon Institute shows. Among the data security and privacy research firm’s findings: Hospitals are not protecting patient data Hospitals admit to being vulnerable to…

Hugh Adami reports: One would think The Ottawa Hospital would readily explain to Allyson Merrison how an X-ray technician — her husband’s ex-wife — was punished for electronically breaching her medical records six times over 10 months. But, says the hospital, privacy laws for its employees prevent it from revealing how it dealt with Teri…