The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will be holding a hearing next Thursday morning, July 24: The Federal Trade commission and Its Section 5 Authority: Prosecutor, Judge, and Jury No details are available yet as to who the witnesses will be, so check back next week. Those interested in the topic may wish…
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VA uses patient privacy to go after whistleblowers, critics say
Joe Davidson reports: Is the Department of Veterans Affairs hiding behind HIPAA to hit federal whistleblowers? Citing patient privacy, managers have threatened VA employees or retaliated against those who complain about agency misconduct, according to a key congressman and the union that represents most of the department’s employees. The “VA routinely uses HIPAA as an…
Bay Area Pain Medical Associates contacts patients after office burglary
Bay Area Pain Medical Associates in Sausalito, California has been notifying patients of breach it experienced on May 19, when their office was burglarized and three desktop computers were stolen. To their credit, patient information on the computers was encrypted – except for one Excel spreadsheet, it seems. In their July 10th letter to those affected, they write: We are…
California highway patrol seizes records of woman beaten by officer
Associated Press reports: California Highway Patrol investigators have seized the medical records of a woman seen on video being repeatedly punched by one of its officers on the side of a Los Angeles freeway. Chris Arevalo, executive administrator for psychiatric services at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, confirmed that the CHP served the search warrant…
Personal information of 1,700 in Dominion Resources’ employee wellness plan hacked
Peter Bacque reports: Personal information of 1,700 people in Dominion Resources Inc.’s employee wellness plan was hacked in March, according to the program’s contractor. Those affected were notified Friday. The hacker gained access through a subcontractor’s system to get individuals’ names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, gender and dates of birth, StayWell Health Management LLC…
What HIPAA doesn't cover
Erin McCann writes: Sure, HIPAA adds a layer of privacy protection for certain health data — if organizations actually comply with it — but there remains myriad avenues of mining health data and selling to the highest bidder that do not fall under the purview of HIPAA’s privacy and security rules. And they may surprise…