The U. of Utah defendants were not the only hospital-breach defendants sentenced this week. Michelle Courtney Johnson, a former patient services coordinator at Johns Hopkins Hospital who was part of an ID theft ring with an employee of Crawford & Company was also sentenced this week. The Associated Press reports that Johnson was sentenced to…
Category: Health Data
Sentencing in U. of Utah Hospitals and Clinics case
Back in June 2008, the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics revealed that a backup tape containing billing records, medical codes, and Social Security numbers on 2.2 million patients was stolen from the vehicle of one of their contractors, Perpetual Storage. The tape was returned a month later after those receiving the stolen tapes understood…
AMA meeting: Better data protection needed from Blues
Damon Adams reports: The BlueCross BlueShield Assn. should expand credit protection and increase identity theft insurance to physicians affected when a laptop computer containing doctors’ personal information was stolen from an employee’s car, according to policy adopted by the American Medical Association House of Delegates. The new policy calls for the Blues association to offer…
Follow-up: FBI looking at UMC records leak
Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun reports: The FBI said Friday it may investigate a breach of patient privacy laws at University Medical Center, where hospital officials are reeling with the realization that at least one of their employees has leaked confidential names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. UMC officials spent Friday determining…
AZ Attorney General to investigate Health Net
A second state’s attorney general is opening an investigation into the Health Net breach that was only recently revealed six months after the data were either lost or stolen. From the press release from Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard: Attorney General Terry Goddard today called on Health Net, a Connecticut-based insurance company, to immediately notify…
FL: Holmes flags hacked e-mail
Jeff Schweers reports: A power struggle at Brevard County’s largest hospital has taken a serious turn with allegations that the chief of the medical staff pilfered another doctor’s e-mail account and violated patient confidentiality laws. Dr. Richard Hynes, a back surgeon, has dropped his bid for election to a second term as president of the…