Ben Sutherly reports a follow-up on the Community Mercy Health Partners breach reported previously on this blog. Sutherly reports that the actual number of patients potentially affected was far less than the 113,000 reported to HHS because of duplication. And as a result of the breach, Community Mercy no longer contracts with the vendor, he said. The vendor…
Category: Health Data
ID: Fruitland dental hygienist accused of insurance fraud
Here’s another case where health care services were provided by someone using a stolen identity, but in this case the stolen identity was used to fraudulently authorize treatments and to defraud insurance carriers. John Sowell reports: Federal prosecutors have accused Cherie R. Dillon of health care fraud and aggravated identity theft tied to her Payette…
Los Angeles physical therapy provider settles HHS charges that it impermissibly disclosed patient information
An announcement by HHS on Feb. 16 seems to have flown under most media radar. It seems that Complete P.T. used patient images and testimonials on their web site without patient consent, generating a complaint to HHS that HHS investigated and confirmed. Complete P.T. has admitted liability, agreed to pay $25,000, and has agreed to a…
California Attorney General Releases Report Defining “Reasonable” Data Security
I’ve previously posted a link to a report by the California Attorney General on breaches in California and recommendations, but I like that this post by Hunton & Williams focuses on the how the recommendations relate to “reasonable security:” Importantly, the Report states that, “[t]he failure to implement all the [Center for Internet Security’s Critical Security]…
Healthcare data breaches lead more patients to withhold information from doctors
Stephen Cobb writes: As 2015 slides into the cybersecurity history books as “the year of the healthcare breach” I decided to examine one aspect of medical data privacy that is sometimes overlooked: the impact of breaches on patient-doctor information exchange. Specifically, I’m concerned that high profile healthcare-related IT security breaches may lead more people to…
Stolen Shire laptop contained patients’ personal and medical info
Pharmaceutical company Shire is notifying an unspecified number of individuals that their personal and medical information was on a laptop stolen from an employee’s car in Washington D.C. The laptop, which was issued by Shire Human Genetic Therapies, Inc. was stolen on December 30th and its theft was reported to the police immediately. Investigation into…