Some recent articles about the sale of patients’ prescription histories to insurance companies have raised many consumer questions about this practice. Ingenix and Milliman — two companies engaged in this practice — were the subject of a Federal Trade Commission enforcement action which was published for comment in September 2007. The World Privacy Forum provided…
Category: Health Data
Prescription Data Used To Assess Consumers
Ellen Nakashima reports in the Washington Post: Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health “credit report” drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans. […] Traditionally, insurance companies have judged an applicant’s risk by gathering medical…
UK: Patient files found in corridor
Confidential patient files have been left lying in a corridor at St George’s Hospital in south London. The files were found by a BBC London reporter on Thursday after a tip-off. The find comes months after six laptops containing information about 20,000 patients were stolen from a locked cabinet at the same hospital. St George’s…
New Privacy Risk: Patients Who Assume Someone Else's Identity to Obtain Treatment
Reprinted from REPORT ON PATIENT PRIVACY, the industry’s most practical source of news on HIPAA patient privacy provisions. A new gray cloud has arrived on the privacy officer’s skyline and it promises to be as vexing as figuring out the privacy rule was back in 2002: patients who assume the identity of another person in…
UK: Laptop with 1,500 patients' details stolen
Brian Lashley reports: A LAPTOP containing confidential patient data has been stolen from a hospital by a burglar who climbed through an unlocked window. The computer holds personal information about 1,581 patients attending a clinic at Stepping Hill Hospital, Hazel Grove, Stockport. Hospital chiefs said the data is protected by a complex password system, which…
Capitol Hill Watch | Kennedy-Enzi EHR Bill Likely To Be Delayed Until After August Recess
Additional action on a bill (S 1693) that would create a national electronic health records system likely will be delayed until after Congress’ August recess, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said on Thursday, CongressDaily reports. Enzi introduced the bill in 2007 with committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). According…