May Warren reports: Two health workers who snooped into late mayor Rob Ford’s electronic health records have become the first in Ontario to be convicted under the province’s health privacy law, the Star has learned. Mohammad Rahman, of Toronto, and Debbie Davison, of Pickering, both pleaded guilty under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA)…
Category: Health Data
Patient privacy: Can past lessons prevent future failures?
Niam Yaraghi writes: I talked with key personnel at twenty-two different hospitals, insurers, and business associates that had experienced a breach incident over the last two years. A new report synthesizes the lessons learned from those incidents and highlights the unique vulnerabilities of the health care system to privacy breaches. Read more on Brookings Institute.
Employees at Saint Agnes Medical Center dealing with possibility of identity theft
KFSN reports: Thousands of employees at Saint Agnes Medical Center are dealing with the possibility of identity theft after a security breach. Scammers got the W-2’s of everyone employed by the hospital this week. The breach affected 2,800 employees. Read more on ABC.
UK: Health trust fined after data breach
ITV reports: A health trust has been hit with a £185,000 fine after it posted the private details of thousands of members of staff – including their sexual orientation – on its website. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust inadvertently published workers’ confidential data which also included their National Insurance number, date of birth and…
Eastern Health Employee Fired for ‘Deliberate’ Privacy Breach
VOCM reports: An Eastern Health employee has been let go after what health officials say was a deliberate privacy breach involving private information on 11 patients. VOCM’s Linda Swain reports. Read more on VOCM.
Stolen billing vendor’s laptop held patient info from 8 medical facilities
EqualizeRCM Services is a vendor providing billing and collection services to healthcare providers. In compliance with HIPAA, it has Business Associate contracts with its clients, who provide it with the information needed to fulfill its functions. The firm has headquarters in Austin, Texas, and offices in Houston and Washington, D.C. On February 29, EqualizeRCM learned that a…