Through the law firm of Baker & Hostetler, CHRISTUS St. John Hospital notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office of a breach involving unencrypted patient information on a lost memory stick. The Houston-based hospital learned of the September 25th incident on September 27th, but a search was unsuccessful in recovering the drive, which contained the…
Category: Health Data
Ca: Snooping in health files to be made illegal
The Winnipeg Free Press reports: The Selinger government will make it tougher for health-care workers to snoop in patient files. The NDP introduced a bill Wednesday making it an offence for an employee to use or access personal health information without authorization or to falsify that information. […] The legislation already includes penalties for disclosing…
RI: Laptop stolen from Landmark Medical Center (updated)
Tony Gugliotta reports: A laptop computer with a[n Excel] spreadsheet containing certain patient information was stolen from Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket. The hospital sent out a letter to affected patients that said the computer was set up in a conference room within the hospital and was for used [sic] by authorized employees only. According…
Large-Scale Health Data Breaches Declined in 2012 – So Far, Anyway
Joseph Conn reports: There is some good news on the healthcare data-breach front. According to data compiled on the larger breaches of patient-identifiable medical records reported to HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, 2012 is on track to record fewer breaches than any full year since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 required such…
Couple Stole the Identities of Doctors Who Applied for Fellowships at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Patients at Highlandtown Community Health Center
Another scheme involving insider breaches comes to light in Baltimore. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland reports: Ringleader Derrick Hill, age 52, and his girlfriend Renee Cabell, age 51, both of Woodlawn, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to their plea agreements, from August to October, 2009,…
OH: Boardman dermatologist reports potential patient ID theft
Because of the number of patients involved, we won’t see this on HHS’s breach tool, but it serves as a useful reminder that the risk of ID theft is everywhere, still: A dermatologist at 755 Boardman Canfield Road told police someone forced open a box that holds lab specimens outside the rear door of his…