Protecting patient privacy has been recognized as the duty of health-care providers for about as long as doctors have seen patients. In 1996 that duty became a legal obligation when Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA regulations safeguard patient’s personal health information but can also complicate the process of safeguarding public…
Category: Health Data
UK: Hospital finds "lost" discs which sparked identity theft warning
WHITTINGTON Hospital wasted £25,000 after wrongly announcing that confidential details of thousands of staff members had been “lost in the post”. A farcical fortnight at the Highgate hospital “which included a police investigation and letters being sent to 18,000 staff warning that they could become victims of identity fraud” ended with hospital bosses announcing on…
CA: Drugstore's old job applications found in dumpster
Old job applications of hundreds of people who sought employment at a former Rite-Aid drugstore were found tossed into an open dumpster Wednesday behind the now-shuttered store, revealing sensitive information of applicants that included Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses. [..] Some of the applications date back to 1996 and 1997, when it was…
Crimes of the chart
John Pulley reports: A Colorado man receives a $44,000 bill for colon surgery he did not have. Social workers in Utah accuse a woman of giving birth to a methamphetamine-addicted baby and threaten to take away her children. A mortgage lender rejects an application to refinance the home of a couple whose credit history is…
Ca: Patient's private file ends up in school
Mary Moszynski reports: For the second time in less than a year, the Liberal government is facing questions over how a patient’s personal information ended up in an unsecure location. Officials were alerted on Monday that a student at St. Mary’s Academy in Edmundston discovered their homework was printed on the back of a medical…
New World Privacy Forum Report: Red Flag suggestions for hospitals and providers
The World Privacy Forum published a new report today, Red Flag and Address Discrepancy Requirements: Suggestions for Health Care Providers. The report discusses the applicability of the new FTC Red Flag regulations to the health care sector along with suggestions for providers. The recently issued regulations by the FTC require financial institutions and creditors to…