Sometimes patients are willing victims of misuse of their records. We generally don’t see the government prosecuting patients for participating in fraud schemes like the one described below by DOJ, but I almost wish that they occasionally would prosecute participating patients. Then, too, do these patients get counted as “medical identity theft” victims in the…
Category: Health Data
Man wanted for 17 burglaries in medical offices at Inova Fair Oaks; cash, iPads stolen
Nancy Chen reports: A man is wanted for 17 burglaries at medical offices on the Inova Fair Oaks Medical Campus, and police say cash and iPads were stolen on April 22 in Fairfax County, Virginia. Read more on ABC. So what was on those iPads? Any PII or PHI? We don’t yet know…..
Ca: William Osler Health System says staff member inappropriately used patient info
Codi Wilson reports: William Osler Health System says an internal investigation has been launched after an employee allegedly accessed patient records to obtain narcotics. In a statement issued Tuesday, William Osler Health System said that earlier this week, it notified patients about the data breach. According to the statement, a staff member allegedly used patient…
$2.5 million settlement because draft policies and plans were neither finalized nor implemented before laptop theft
A recent HHS settlement that included a relatively small monetary penalty, $31,000, didn’t seem to get a lot of media attention. Maybe today’s announced settlement stemming from a laptop theft that resulted in a steep monetary penalty will get attention? From HHS: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has announced…
Healthcare records for sale on Dark Web
Ryan Francis reports on the cost of a medical record on the dark web, and it’s nice to see Flashpoint agreeing with what some of us have been saying for a while now – that the cost is generally about $1 per record – not the $200 figure you may have read in earlier reports…
Unencrypted patient info from 2008 left in a van, and…… yeah.
From their disclosure notice: Western Health Screening (“WHS”) is an organization that offers comprehensive blood screening tests. It partners with community organizations, such as hospitals, to provide onsite blood screenings at Health Fairs throughout the Western slope of Colorado. You have been a participant at Health Fairs in the past that were sponsored by either…