Reports of health record breach violations have been pouring into the California Department of Public Health since the state began requiring healthcare entities to report all incidents of unauthorized record access. More than 800 reports have been filed since the law took effect January 1, according to Kathleen Billingsley, RN, deputy director of the California…
Category: Health Data
BOTSWANA: Court rules on privacy violation
In the first case of its kind in Botswana, a woman has successfully sued another woman for publicly revealing her HIV status. The High Court in Lobatse, a city in the southeast, has ruled that Sadi Nokane pay Obakeng Madubela US$1,000 in damages for violating Madubela’s right to privacy. Around 55 percent of the population…
Alberta Health records hit by virus
The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has been notified by Alberta Health Services that a virus was present on the Alberta Health Services network in Edmonton. The virus impacted the network and Netcare, Alberta’s electronic health record, before it was discovered and removed. The virus is a new variant of a Trojan horse…
Alberta Health records compromised by virus
Alberta’s privacy commissioner is investigating after a computer virus hit Alberta Health Services and patient files were compromised. The virus, a new variant of a trojan horse program called Coreflood, was active from May 15 to 29, before it was detected and removed from the Edmonton network. Coreflood is “designed to steal data from an…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: A federal jury convicted Ronald Luis Bradshaw, a physician assistant, for his role in a $7.7 million Medicare fraud scheme. He was found guilty on all charged counts, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, multiple counts of health fraud and aggravated identity theft for prescribing medically unnecessary durable medical equipment…
NA: HIV Testing Controversy
Wezi Tjaronda reports: The Legal Assistance Centre is taking a medical doctor and a lodge owner to court for allegedly testing 22 workers of the hotel for HIV without their consent in what could be the largest and maybe the first case in Namibia concerning non-consensual HIV testing. The 22 workers want to hold Dr Gerhard…